ad|just

ad|just «uh JUHST», transitive verb.

1. to change (something) to make fit; adapt (one thing to another): »

These desks and seats can be adjusted to the height of any child.

2. to set just right; put in proper order, position, or relation; arrange: »

to adjust one's clothes, adjust the aim of a gun to allow for distance and wind. Please adjust the TV so that it is not so loud.

SYNONYM(S): regulate, fix.

3. to settle; arrange satisfactorily: »

The boys adjusted their difference of opinion and were friends again.

SYNONYM(S): reconcile.

4. to decide the amount of money to be paid in settlement of (an insurance claim, a bill, or other monies owing).

–v.i.

1. to adapt oneself; get used: »

Some wild animals never adjust to life in a zoo. Freshmen soon adjust to school life.

2. to be changed so as to fit different users, for example by changing the angle, focus, or height: »

These field glasses adjust with a screw. The new camera has a lens that adjusts automatically.

╂[< earlier French adjuster < Old French ajuster < a- for + juste straight, right, learned borrowing from Latin jūstus]

Synonym Study transitive verb. 1 Adjust, adapt, accommodate have in common the idea of fitting one thing or person to another. Adjust emphasizes the idea of matching one thing to another: »

I have to adjust my expenditures to my income.

Adapt emphasizes the idea of making minor changes in a thing (or person) to make it fit, suit, or fit into something: »

I adapted the pattern to the material.

Accommodate emphasizes that the things to be fitted together are so different that one must be subordinated to the other: »

I have to accommodate my desires to my income.