1Appoint to membership of a committee or other body by invitation of the existing members.

1. 1.1 Divert to or use in a role different from the usual or original one.
   with object and infinitive social scientists were co-opted to work with the development agencies

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It will survive attempts to co-opt and appropriate it.
   • Eventually, though, evolution co-opted the feathers for flight.
   • As expected, these systems involve using bits co-opted from other pathways originally having different functions.
   • This work tests the novel notion that cancer cells co-opt cellular pathways that govern metabolism in order to proliferate beyond a cell's normal means.
   • Chris Harman looks at its attempts to co-opt movements and how socialists should react
   • High profile sports figures and media personalities, with no history of political involvement, are increasingly co-opted by the establishment parties to stand as candidates.
   • Are they variants of old genes that played quite different roles in the ancestors, and that have been co-opted and modified to play entirely new roles in the descendants?
   • Wasn't this discussion supposed to be about how the right wing in this country is (mostly successfully) attempting to co-opt public T.V.?
   • We have lots of examples in molecular biology of components for one system being adapted or co-opted for use in a different system.
   • It is almost as if the BBC and the media have decided they want him and are co-opting the public (and a majority of us here) in on the campaign.
   • While social movement theorists cite that electoral politics serve only to co-opt our work, we must ask ourselves if certain publications don't do the same.
   • Other social forces and popular movements were co-opted or repressed during the period of military government, leading to their demobilization and fragmentation.
   • The changes also deepened the process whereby social workers and voluntary sector agencies have been co-opted into policing asylum seekers and ensuring as little money as possible is spent on them.
   • The great monastic orders were similarly co-opted to educate, administer, and farm.
   • A postmodern playfulness and irony are employed to challenge a Party icon, by co-opting fragments of an old socialist anthem as the basis of a rock song.
   • On the other hand we can try to co-opt the mental faculties that work well (such as understanding how objects fall and roll) and get children to apply them to problems for which they lack natural competence.
   • The latter, however, has cleverly co-opted independent powerful women into the roles of exploiter.
   • What is happening, of course, is that a few angry people are looking for ways to amplify their own political opinions, and are co-opting the collective voice of parents for that purpose.
   • Plurality may exist, but its presence could easily be co-opted by a charismatic leadership that monopolizes decision-making.
   • Instead of people putting energy into directly working for local and global change, voting diverts and co-opts people power.

   Synonyms

   incorporate, assimilate, integrate, appropriate, take in, subsume, include, swallow up
2. 1.2 Adopt (an idea or policy) for one's own use.
   the green parties have had most of their ideas co-opted by bigger parties

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It's hard not to feel as if you've co-opted part of their belief system just because you're using their words.
   • In a sense, the core of the mindset becomes co-opted by commercial interests and is repackaged in a friendlier, more palatable form.
   • Here's my solution, a modest proposal: Let's co-opt the marketplace mentality of our students in service of the liberal arts.
   • Socialism jumped the rails when it was co-opted by the imperialist
   • In any struggle for allegiances, the ruling regime might not be able to co-opt the insurgency's ideology, but it might be able to challenge its claims to legitimacy by addressing and resolving grievances.
   • Even if we get 5 or 10 million votes, we'll send the Republican and Democratic parties scrambling to co-opt our platform.
   • The two parties could not ignore those third parties winning local elections and began to co-opt their themes and issues.
   • Of course, at some point, the oil industry co-opted this brilliant idea and flooded the market with petroleum based diesel, which was a byproduct of gasoline production, as I understand it.
   • ‘This mayor seems to have co-opted all of the ideas the independents have,’ said Shaw, who is African American.
   • My concern with doing so is that someone else might co-opt my thoughts, ideas, or turns of phrases for use in their own submissions.
   • How do we protect the ideas from being co-opted by neo-conservatives and risking greater erosion of the welfare state?
   • Aspects of patriarchy, in my opinion, have become co-opted by commercialism and corporatism.
   • Indeed, co-opting your competition's best ideas is a time-tested political and business strategy.
   • It has even been co-opted by some who embrace the stereotypes.
   • Democrats' timidity also makes it easier for the Republicans to co-opt their modest ideas, from prescription drugs to homeland security.
   • It's a concept that is often co-opted by individuals and organizations that stretch its meaning to fit their own particular missions.
   • Did traditional forces learn to live with, succumb to, successfully oppose or ultimately co-opt the force of that idea?
   • The idea was quickly co-opted by every self respecting mystic and the term has since been inescapable.
   • My aim is to chart how ideas about creativity, the university and the subject are co-opted by various competing ideologies.
   • There is ample evidence of special educators co-opting ideas that in and of themselves may have some value for academic debate but that raise serious concerns about significant, negative real-world implications.

   Synonyms

   subsume, incorporate, integrate, absorb, engulf, swallow up, take over, naturalize, adopt, embrace, accept, admit