Take /(tāk)/

1. Taken. obs.

imp. Took; p. p. Taken; p. pr. & vb. n. Taking

1. In an active sense; To lay hold of; to seize with the hands, or otherwise; to grasp; to get into one's hold or possession; to procure; to seize and carry away; to convey.
2. To obtain possession of by force or artifice; to get the custody or control of; to reduce into subjection to one's power or will; to capture; to seize; to make prisoner; as, to take an army, a city, or a ship; also, to come upon or befall; to fasten on; to attack; to seize; -- said of a disease, misfortune, or the like.

   This man was taken of the Jews.

   Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take; Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.

   They that come abroad after these showers are commonly taken with sickness.

   There he blasts the tree and takes the cattle And makes milch kine yield blood.

3. To gain or secure the interest or affection of; to captivate; to engage; to interest; to charm.

   Neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

   Cleombroutus was so taken with this prospect, that he had no patience.

   I know not why, but there was a something in those half-seen features, -- a charm in the very shadow that hung over their imagined beauty, -- which took me more than all the outshining loveliness of her companions.

4. To make selection of; to choose; also, to turn to; to have recourse to; as, to take the road to the right.

   Saul said, Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken.

   The violence of storming is the course which God is forced to take for the destroying . . . of sinners.

5. To employ; to use; to occupy; hence, to demand; to require; as, it takes so much cloth to make a coat; it takes five hours to get to Boston from New York by car.

   This man always takes time . . . before he passes his judgments.

6. To form a likeness of; to copy; to delineate; to picture; as, to take a picture of a person.

   Beauty alone could beauty take so right.

7. To draw; to deduce; to derive. [R.]

   The firm belief of a future judgment is the most forcible motive to a good life, because taken from this consideration of the most lasting happiness and misery.

8. To assume; to adopt; to acquire, as shape; to permit to one's self; to indulge or engage in; to yield to; to have or feel; to enjoy or experience, as rest, revenge, delight, shame; to form and adopt, as a resolution; -- used in general senses, limited by a following complement, in many idiomatic phrases; as, to take a resolution; I take the liberty to say.
9. To lead; to conduct; as, to take a child to church.
10. To carry; to convey; to deliver to another; to hand over; as, he took the book to the bindery; he took a dictionary with him.

    He took me certain gold, I wot it well.

11. To remove; to withdraw; to deduct; -- with from; as, to take the breath from one; to take two from four.
12. In a somewhat passive sense, to receive; to bear; to endure; to acknowledge; to accept.
13. To accept, as something offered; to receive; not to refuse or reject; to admit.

    Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer.

    Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore.

14. To receive as something to be eaten or drunk; to partake of; to swallow; as, to take food or wine.
15. Not to refuse or balk at; to undertake readily; to clear; as, to take a hedge or fence.
16. To bear without ill humor or resentment; to submit to; to tolerate; to endure; as, to take a joke; he will take an affront from no man.
17. To admit, as, something presented to the mind; not to dispute; to allow; to accept; to receive in thought; to entertain in opinion; to understand; to interpret; to regard or look upon; to consider; to suppose; as, to take a thing for granted; this I take to be man's motive; to take men for spies.

    You take me right.

    Charity, taken in its largest extent, is nothing else but the science love of God and our neighbor.

    [He] took that for virtue and affection which was nothing but vice in a disguise.

    You'd doubt his sex, and take him for a girl.

18. To accept the word or offer of; to receive and accept; to bear; to submit to; to enter into agreement with; -- used in general senses; as, to take a form or shape.

    I take thee at thy word.

    Yet thy moist clay is pliant to command; . . . Not take the mold.

19. To make a picture, photograph, or the like, of; as, to take a group or a scene. [Colloq.]
20. To give or deliver (a blow to); to strike; hit; as, he took me in the face; he took me a blow on the head. [Obs. exc. Slang or Dial.]

    For now Troy's broad-wayed town He shall take in.

    The ancients took up experiments upon credit.

    One of his relations took him up roundly.

    Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale.

1. To take hold; to fix upon anything; to have the natural or intended effect; to accomplish a purpose; as, he was inoculated, but the virus did not take.

   When flame taketh and openeth, it giveth a noise.

   In impressions from mind to mind, the impression taketh, but is overcome . . . before it work any manifest effect.

2. To please; to gain reception; to succeed.

   Each wit may praise it for his own dear sake, And hint he writ it, if the thing should take.

3. To move or direct the course; to resort; to betake one's self; to proceed; to go; -- usually with to; as, the fox, being hard pressed, took to the hedge.
4. To admit of being pictured, as in a photograph; as, his face does not take well.

1. That which is taken, such as the quantity of fish captured at one haul or catch, or the amouont of money collected during one event; as, the box-office take.
2. The quantity or copy given to a compositor at one time. (Print.)