Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin adaequātus, perfect passive participle of adaequō (“to make equal to”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix)), further from ad (“to, towards, at”) + aequō (“to make equal, equalize”), from aequus (“equal”). Cognate with French adéquat. By surface analysis, ad- + equate.
1
Equal to or fulfilling some requirement.
powers adequate to a great work
an adequate definition
4 more examples
Proportion therefore your Clothes to your bodies, and let them be proper for your persons. […] Agreeableness […] ought to be exact, and adequate both to age, person and condition, avoiding extremities on both sides, being neither too much out, nor in the fashions.1673, Hannah Woolley, “Of Habit, and the neatness and property thereof”, in The Gentlewomans Companion, London: Dorman Newman, page 61:
Her legal allowance was not adequate to her fortune, nor sufficient for her comfortable maintenance […]1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 31, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
1853, Thomas De Quincey, Autobiographic Sketches in Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers, Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, “Dublin,” p. 254, […] in those days, Ireland had no adequate champion; the Hoods and the Grattans were not up to the mark.
All day as I drove upon my round I turned over the case in my mind, and found no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate.1903, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes:
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin adaequātus, perfect passive participle of adaequō (“to make equal to”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix)), further from ad (“to, towards, at”) + aequō (“to make equal, equalize”), from aequus (“equal”). Cognate with French adéquat. By surface analysis, ad- + equate.
1
A sufficient amount of; enough.
We have adequate money for the journey.
adequate
verb
/ˈæd.ɪˌkweɪt/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin adaequātus, perfect passive participle of adaequō (“to make equal to”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix)), further from ad (“to, towards, at”) + aequō (“to make equal, equalize”), from aequus (“equal”). Cognate with French adéquat. By surface analysis, ad- + equate.
Let me giue yet one instance more, of a truly intellectuall obiect, exactly adequated and proportioned vnto the intellectuall appetite.1622, Martin Fotherby, Atheomastix; clearing foure truthes, against atheists and infidels, London, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 208:
[…] though it be an impossibilitie for any creature to adequate God in his eternitie, yet he hath ordained all his sonnes in Christ to partake of it by living with him eternally.1635, Robert Shelford, “Theologia Amantis Deum, or A Treatise of the Divine Attributes”, in Five Pious and Learned Discourses, Cambridge, page 227: