Meaning of co-opt in English

co-opt

verb [ T ]

/kəʊˈɒpt/ us

/koʊˈɑːpt/

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(of an elected group) to make someone a member through the choice of the present members:

She was co-opted on to the committee last June.

to include someone in something, often against their will:

Whether they liked it or not, local people were co-opted into the victory parade.

to use someone else's ideas:

Rock and roll music was largely co-opted from the blues.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Applying for a job

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Causing somebody to act

Copying and copies

(Definition of co-opt from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

co-opt | American Dictionary

co-opt

verb [ T ]

/koʊˈɑpt, ˈkoʊ·ɑpt/

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to persuade someone who criticizes or disagrees with you to join your group so that the person can no longer oppose you:

The president co-opted journalists by inviting them to private dinners in the White House.

To co-opt is also to claim something as your own when it was really created by others:

Republicans said the Democrats had co-opted their plan for tax reform.

(Definition of co-opt from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of co-opt

co-opt

As products of hegemony, they co-opt both elites from peripheral countries and also counterhegemonic ideas.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As with local voices, political commentators will rush to denounce or to support the foreign speaker, seeking to discredit him or to co-opt him.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These sponsors could then co-opt anxieties about national unity in a selective celebration designed purely for their own ends.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On another level, institutions co-opt ideas that challenge the world economy by transforming ideas to make them consistent with hegemonic doctrines.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On these foundations a significant part of civil society resisted attempts of local governments and politicians to co-opt them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The modernization of state institutions afforded rulers greater power than ever before, which they wielded to silence and co-opt the ulema.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This model could be used to study how glioblastoma tumour cells co-opt the host stromal cells to enhance tumour cell growth, survival, and invasion.

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Both governments worked diligently to co-opt organized labor following independence.

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The second aims to co-opt the extremes and include them as participants in and beneficiaries of compromise.

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States obliged, mobilising new-found resources to repress and co-opt regional warlords.

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To prevent and control crime and delinquency you need to co-opt the gang and redirect the group's activities towards more positive ends.

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But it does not follow that these arrangements can co-opt radical consumerism.

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It is perhaps not surprising that hegemonic structures in society would co-opt and instrumentalize the most radical and threatening aspects of piety.

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In the first place, presidents had at their disposal important economic and political resources to co-opt regional elites.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this way, cuckoos are able to subvert and co-opt the passerine's modularized survival mechanisms. 11.

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of co-opt?