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Definition of adopt (verb) from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

The government adopted a resolution on disarmament.

Which of the following does the sentence mean?:

  1. The government made a decision to disarm.
  2. The government made a decision about disarmament. (i.e. we don't know whether or not they support disarmament.)

Or does it have other meaning?

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  • The resolution they adopted could in principle have been This government reaffirms its commitment to not disarming. But in that case it would probably be reported differently.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 15, 2021 at 11:44
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    Is your uncertainty about the meaning because of the "on" in "resolution on"? If so, you should probably explain that explicitly in your question, so people don't get confused and think it is caused by "disarmament" or some other word in the sentence. Not everyone looks at the tags to understand the question.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Apr 15, 2021 at 13:19
  • @ColleenV Thank you for the suggestion. Althought "disarmament" is less likely to be the cause of the confusion and "a resolution on" is more likely, I was not very sure. I thought "The government adopted" is very unlikely to be a problem, hence, in the title "a resolution on disarmament". Your advice is helpful and I'll take it into account as a future reference, but forgive me for leaving this post as is now.
    – catwith
    Commented Apr 16, 2021 at 1:32

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A resolution, in this sense, is a formal document which states the decisions of a committee or council. For example, the Security Council of the UN produces resolutions on conflicts and wars.

So it means that the government made a decision about disarmament. It doesn't say what that decision was. This quote is probably taken from a paragraph that explained more. It would be possible for the decision to be "We will disarm, under certain conditions." It could be "We will never disarm", but this seems more unlikely.

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