assume

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To take upon oneself: assume responsibility; assume another's debts.
2. v. To undertake the duties of (an office): assumed the presidency.
3. v. To take on; adopt: "The god assumes a human form” ( John Ruskin).
4. v. To put on; don: The queen assumed a velvet robe.
5. v. To affect the appearance or possession of; feign.
6. v. To take for granted; suppose: assumed that prices would rise. See Synonyms at presume.
7. v. To take over without justification; seize: assume control.
8. v. To take up or receive into heaven.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To take into relation or association; adopt; take in; admit: as, “Enoch and Elias were assumed up into heaven,” Abp. Abbot. See assumption, 5.
2. To take upon one's self; undertake: as, to assume the responsibility of a proceeding; to assume office; to assume an obligation.
3. To take or put on one's self; invest one's self with: as, to assume the garb of a mendicant, or the figure of an animal; to assume a severe aspect; “to assume man's nature,”
4. To apply to one's self; appropriate.
5. To take for granted or without proof; suppose as a fact; postulate: as, to assume a principle in reasoning.
6. To take fictitiously; pretend to possess; take in appearance: as, to assume the garb of humility.
7. To claim.
8. Synonyms To affect, feign, counterfeit.
9. To be arrogant; claim more than is due; presume.

Wiktionary

1. v. To authenticate by means of belief; to surmise; to suppose to be true, especially without proof.
2. v. To take on a position, duty or form.
3. v. To adopt an idea or cause.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To take to or upon one's self; to take formally and demonstratively; sometimes, to appropriate or take unjustly.
2. v. To take for granted, or without proof; to suppose as a fact; to suppose or take arbitrarily or tentatively.
3. v. To pretend to possess; to take in appearance.
4. v. To receive or adopt.
5. v. To be arrogant or pretentious; to claim more than is due.
6. v. (Law) To undertake, as by a promise.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. occupy or take on
2. v. take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof
3. v. take on as one's own the expenses or debts of another person
4. v. take on titles, offices, duties, responsibilities
5. v. make a pretence of
6. v. take up someone's soul into heaven
7. v. take on a certain form, attribute, or aspect
8. v. put clothing on one's body
9. v. seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession