take 
My father could take up, upon the bareness of his word, 
rive hundred pound, and live too. 
Dekker and Webster, Northward Ho, n. 1. 
He look up (borrowed) 500 of Lawyer X., and he han- 
kered arter a binder place, and then somehow he war bank- 
rupt A. Jessopp, Arcady, 11. 
() To acquire, as land, mining property, etc., by pur- 
chase from a government, or by entering claim, occupying, 
improving, or working, as prescribed by law. 
Mary and Mr. Trowbridge have taken up their Country 
to the South West, and as soon as he has got our house 
built we are going to live there. 
H. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, p. 183. 
The facilities for talcing up land (in settlement of Vir- 
ginia] . enabled the better disposed, whose sole crime 
had perhaps been poverty, to obtain a fair start. 
Johns Hopkins Hist. Studies, 3d ser., p. 11. 
(o) To accept; specifically, iu sporting, to agree and re- 
spond to, as a bet, or a person betting. 
The ancients took up experiments upon credit. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist., 34. 
(p) To comprehend ; understand ; take the meaning of. 
[Scotch.] 
I dinna believe he speaks glide Latin neither ; at least 
he disua take me up when I tell him the learned names 
o' the plants. Scott, Rob Roy, xv. 
6166 
Certainly he will never yield to the duke's fall, being 
a young man, resolute, magnanimous, and tenderly and 
firmly affectionate where he takes. 
Court and Times of Charles I., I. 101. 
Somehow or other, she took to Ruth, and Ruth took to 
her H. B. Stou'e, Oldtown, p. 32. 
Why do your teeth like crackling crust, and your organs 
of taste like spongy crumb, and your digestive contri- 
vances take kindly to bread rather than toadstools? 
0. W. Holmes, Poet at the Breakfast-table, hi. 
7. To betake one's self; have recourse ; resort, 
as to a place, course, means, etc. : with to. 
Each mounted on his prancing steed, 
taker-off 
I will have thee put on a gown, 
And take upon thee as thou wert mine heir. 
B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 1. 
To take up with, (a) To consort or fraternize with ; ac- 
cept as a companion or friend; keep company with. 
Are dogs such desirable company to take up with f 
South. 
He takes up uith younger folks, 
Who for his wine will bear his jokes. 
Swift, Death of Dr. Swift. 
(&) To put up with ; be satisfied with. 
We must take up with what can be got. 
o Abp. King, Oct. 10, 1710. 
(c) To adopt ; embrace ; espouse, as an idea or opinion. 
i because they 
A steamer in the mid- Atlantic encountered a storm, and 
was so shattered that all who could took to the boats. 
J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 264. 
We long to know the site of the church of Saint Michael, 
which our countrymen so stoutly guarded, till the Nor- 
mans, No 
8f. To proceed ; resume. 
Now turni 
Macaulay, Mirabeau. 
To take with, to side with. 
Where there is no eminent odds in sufficiency, It is bet- 
ter to take with the more passable than with the more able. 
Bacon, Followers and Friends (ed. 1887). 
take (tak), n. [= Icel. tak = Sw. Dan. tag; 
I. The act of taking, in any 
1. 747. 
9. To be or admit of being taken, in any sense : 
such cases [as in angling and shooting] the pleasure 
of each successful throw needs to exert a lasting influence 
on the mind, rendering it easy to go on for a long time 
L , , < .. M _n_j the <,.,..'i.-iiit . TO DO or auraii or ueing tan.eii, 111 uiij o' oo . on tne mum, rendering n easy 10 go i 
1 do not ** you " p ' 8ir ' ^Tne g Sterling, v. used colloquially in many phrases: as, to take without a take. A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 153. 
(o) To pay the amount or cost of : as, to take up a loan, 
note, or check ; to take up bonds. To take up a quar- 
rel*. See quarrel. To take up arms. See to take arins. 
To take upon (one's self). See to take on. To take 
up short See short. to take up the cross, the cud- 
gels the gauntlet, the glove, the hatchet, the run- 
ning See the nouns. - To take wind. See wind?. To 
take with, to accept or have as a companion ; hence, to 
let (a person) accompany or follow one's course of thought. 
Soft you now, good Morgan Pigot, and take us with ye a 
little I pray. What means your wisdom by all this? 
Peele, Ed ward I., ii. 
To take with a grain of salt. Seesalti. =syn. 10. Ac- 
cept, etc. See receive. 
II. intrans. 1. To obtain; receive ; acquire ; 
become a recipient, an owner, or a possessor ; 
specifically, in law, to acquire or become en- 
titled to property, irrespective of act or ex- 
press assent: thus, an infant upon the death 
of his father is said to take by descent or by 
will according as the father's estate is cast 
upon him by operation of law or by testamen- 
tary act. 
For eche that axith, takith ; and he that sechith, fyndith ; 
and it shal be opnyde to a man knokynge. 
Wydif, Mat. vii. 8. 
All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore 
said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto 
sick ; specifically, of game, to be caught. 
The small flsh take freely some go back into the water, 
the few in good condition into the basket. 
Froude, Sketches, p. 238. 
"I hear my chilluns callin' me," sez Brer Rabbit, sezee ; 
. . . "my ole 'ooman done gone en tuck mighty sick, 
sezee. J. C. Harris, Uncle Remus, xvii. 
Guns of various sizes have been so constructed as to 
take to pieces and atow away in a small compass. 
W. W. Greener, The Gun, p. 78. 
you. 
John xvi. 15. 
2. That which takes, (at) A magic spell ; a charm ; 
an enchantment. 
He has a take upon him, or is planet-struck. 
The Quack'i Academy (1678) (Hart. Misc., II. 34). 
(&) A sudden illness. Halliwell. [Prov. Bug.) 
3. That which is taken ; the amount or quan- 
tity taken, (a) In hunting, fishing, etc., the amount 
of game caught or killed : as, a take or catch of flsh. 
The yearly take of larks is 60,000. This includes sky- 
larks, wood-larks, tit-larks, and mud-larks. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II. 68. 
a sale ; specifically, in theat. language, the 
ived from the sale of seats before the 
The exclusion of any claim of the next of kin to take 
under a resulting trust. Supreme Court Reporter, X. 807. 
2. To remove; abstract; figuratively, to de- 
tract; derogate: often followed by from. 
Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? 
Job ix. 12. 
To take from 
The workmanship of Heaven is an offence 
As great as to endeavour to add to it. 
Beau, and PL, Knight of Malta, iii. 3. 
Ford's grammatical experiments take from the simpli- 
city of his diction, while they afford no strength what- 
ever to his descriptions: 
Gifford, Introd. to Ford's Plays, p. xliii. 
3f. To take place; occur; result. 
And if so be that pees hereafter take, 
As alday happeth after anger game. 
Chaucer, Troilus, iv. 1562. 
[The printed editions all have or insert a be before take, 
but the MSS. do not have it, and it is objectionable on 
the score of meter.] 
Fetch him off, fetch him off ! I am sure he's clouted, 
Did I not tell you how 'twould take' 
Fletcher, Humorous Lieutenant, iii. 7. 
4. To take effect ; work ; act ; operate. 
I have had strategems and ambuscadoes ; 
But, God he thanked, they have never took! 
Beau, and Fl., Woman-Hater, v. 2. 
Glad you got through with the pock so well it takes 
a second time, some say it's worse than horn-ail, hoven, 
or core. S. Judd, Margaret, ii. 5. 
Rub the solder in until it takes, which will be In a mo- 
ment. Sri. Amer., N. S., LIX. 264. 
6. To have the desired effect ; hence, to please ; 
be successful or popular: sometimes followed 
by with: as, the play takes with a certain class. 
He printed awittyPoeme called Hudibras; the first part 
. . . tooke extremely. Aubrey, Lives (Samuel Butler). 
He [Mr. Hobbes] knew what would take, and be liked ; 
and he knew how to express it after a taking manner. 
Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, I. iii. 
The style takes; the style pays; and what more would 
you have? Kingsley, Two Years Ago, vii. 
6. To be disposed, inclined, or addicted ; espe- 
cially, to be favorably disposed toward some 
person or thing: usually followed by to : as, to 
take naturally to study ; the dog seldom takes to 
strangers. 
10. To touch ; take hold. 
The cradles are supported under their centres by shores (6) An appropriation or holding of land; a lease; espe- 
on which the keel takes. Luce, Seamanship, p. 179. cially, in coal-mining, the area covered by a lease for min- 
, ,, , . . - , ing purposes ; a set. Compare tack*, 9. [Eng.] 
11 . To be a (good or bad) subject for a pho- JfJJJ Gibbon & fleM of one hundred acres and an . 
tograph : as, he does not take well. L^ 011 <1-J other of twenty-five were divided about forty years ago 
To give and take, to offer, do, or say something, and to jnto ploU f rom one to one anQ a half acres, with larger 
receive the like in return : said with reference to action takes up to fourteen or fifteen acres in grass. 
which takes place by turns or reciprocally, as in a set-to : Nineteenth Century, XIX. 912. 
-To take after, to pattern alter , in Die 
An obstinate, passionate, self-willed boy! Who can he amo untof money recei 
take after? Sheridan, The Rivals, iii. 1. opening of the doors on the night of a performance. Fat 
To take in with, to enter into agreement with; make take. See/otl. 
terms with. taket. An obsolete past participle of take. 
Men once placed take in with the contrary faction to take-heed (tak'hed'), n. Caution; prudence; 
that by which they enter : thinking, belike, that they have circumspection. [Rare.] 
l know you want good diets and good lotions, 
And, in your pleasures, good take-heed. 
Fletcher, Spanish Curate, iv. 5. 
take-in (tak'in),n 1. Deception; fraud; im- 
position. LOOlloq. J 
Anybody that looks on the board looks on us as cheats 
and humbugs, and thinks thatour catalogues are Mtakes 
in. Mayhem, London Labour and London Poor, I. 326. 
their first sure, an 
To take Off, to set off ; part ; start ; spring ; specifically, 
just right to take off [in leaping a brook], the mere momen- 
turn of his body would take him over a place 15 feet wide. 
Encyc. Brit., XII. 198. 
The other two headwaters of the Hugli bear witness to 
not less memorable vicissitudes. The second of them 
takes o/from the Gauges about forty miles eastward from 
the Bhagirathi. Nineteenth Century, XXIII. 44. 
To take on, to be agitated ; display great excitement, 
grief, anger, or other emotion. /*-v 1 
I take onne, as one dothe that p.layeth his sterakels, je I a ? 9 / ** 
Hence 2. The person cheating: as, he is a 
humbug and a take-in. fColloq.] 
takelt, . and v. A Middle English form of 
Past participle of lake. 
I take onne, as one uotne tnat piayetn nis sieraneis, je _- / ,, 11o V^-H-l, f nf m nf tsibrn 
tempeste. Palsgrave. (Halliudl, under sterrades.) taken 2 K n. A Middle English form at token. 
Lady Bothwell could not make herself easy; yet she take-off" (tak'of), *. 1. The act of taking off, 
was sensible that her sister hurt her own cause by taking in any sense ; especially, an imitation 01 
on, as the maid-servants call it, too vehemently. icking; a caricature; a burlesque representa- 
Scott, My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, i. tion. 2. The point at which one takes off; 
There 's Missis walking about the drawing-room taking specifically, the point at which a leaper rises 
on awful. Whyte Meli-Ole, White Rose, II. xxii. f ^ om the gV ound j n taking a fence or bar. 
To take on one. See to take upon one. To take to. 
(a) See defs. 6 and 7. (f>) To set about doing something ; 
fall to ; take a hand in : as, to take to rising early ; to take 
to cards or billiards. To take to one's heels. See heell . 
- To take to the road. See road. To take up. (at) 
To stop ; hold up. 
Sir, it is time tota*e up, for I know that anything from 
this place, as soon as it is certain, is _s tale. 
Coz. Be not rapt so. 
Cont. Your Excellence would be so, had you seen her. 
Coz. Take up, take up. 
Massinger, Great Duke of Florence, i. 2. 
(6t) To reform. 
The Good has borrowed old Bowman's house In Kent, 
and is retiring thither for six weeks : I tell her she has 
lived so rakish a life that she is obliged to go and take up. 
Walpole, Letters, II. 28. 
(c) To clear up : said of the weather. Halliwell. [Prov. 
Eng.l (d) To begin : as, school takes up next week. [Scotch, 
and local, IT. S.) (e) To obtain a loan; borrow or obtain 
and bring myself in credit, sure. 
B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, i. 1. 
A hog-backed stile and a foot-board, four feet odd of 
strong timber with a slippery take-off, are to him articles 
of positive refreshment and relief. 
Whyte Melville, White Rose, II. xv. 
3. In croquet, a stroke by which the player's 
ball is driven forward in the line of aim or near- 
ly so, and the ball it touches is barely moved or 
Donne, Letters, xlvii. even a n owe d to remain undisturbed. 
taker (ta'ker), n. [< take + -eri.] One who 
takes, in any sense; specifically, a purveyor. 
As for capons ye can gette none, 
The kyngys taker toke up eche one. 
Interlude of the iiij. Elements, n. d. (HaUiweU. ) 
Cheerful and grateful takers the gods love, 
And such as wait their pleasures with full hopes. 
Fletcher (and another!), Prophetess, i. 3. 
The taker of a degree . . . received the title of Danisch- 
mend a Persian word, signifying " Gifted with Know- 
ledge. J. Baker, Turkey, p. 150. 
taker-off (ta'ker-6f), n. One who takes off or 
removes; specifically, in printing, the workman, 
Like some great horse he paceth vp and downe, . 
And takes rpon Mm in each company 
At if he held some petty monarchy. 
' 
. 
Times' Whistle (E. E. T. S.),p. 24. a flyer. 
boy. .. -------- 
the *" * <*" ea * 
The sheets are removed singly by an attendant called f 
taker-o/, or by a mechanical automatic arrangement called 
a flyer. AMJ/C. Bn(., XXIII. ,06. 
