take
Forms
- present (v1)
- take
- past (v2)
- took
- past participle (v3)
- taken
- present participle
- taking
- 3rd person singular
- takes
- Plural
- takes
Definitions
1.To get into one's hands, possession, or control, with or without force.
- I'll take that plate off the table.
- They took Charlton's gun from his cold, dead hands.
- After a bloody battle, they were able to take the city.
2.To receive or accept (something, especially something which was given).
- She wouldn't take any money for her help.
- The therapist wouldn't take him as a client.
- The school only takes new students in the fall.
3.To remove.
- The plague took rich and poor alike.
- Take one from three and you are left with two.
- He took his life last night.
4.To have sex with.
- I wonder what it would feel like to take two cocks at the same time.
1.The or an act of taking.
- 'I saw you in Norfolk doing twenty-odd takes with that fisherman chap and it looked perfect in the rushes.'
- The 1994 Amendments address the incidental take of marine mammals in the course of commercial fishing, not the direct lethal take of pinnipeds for management purposes.
2.Something that is taken; a haul.
- He wants half of the take if he helps with the job.
- Why would anyone go along with such things? Money is still the main answer: Almost all prominent climate deniers are on the fossil-fuel take.
- The mayor is on the take.
3.An interpretation or view, opinion or assessment; perspective; a statement expressing such a position.
- What's your take on this issue, Fred?
- What's your take on Hitler / Now Americans / Want to share his big ideal / With everyone?
- Another unsolicited maths take: talking about quotients in terms of "equivalence classes" or cosets is really unnatural.
4.An approach, a (distinct) treatment.
- Whatever the provenance, the result is a delightfully novel take on a stalwart, often deadening Victorian feature.
- As part of her acceptance speech for the Billboard Icon Award during the show, Dion showed off her well-honed Las Vegas showmanship during her take on the Queen classic and statement of endurance.
- The League of Gentlemen was all set in one town; The Fast Show did what it said on the tin, the sketches came thick and fast; Goodness Gracious Me was a brilliant take on British Asian culture.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #63
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English taken (“to take, lay hold of, grasp, strike”), from Old English tacan (“to grasp, touch”), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse taka (“to touch, take”), from Proto-Germanic *tēkaną (“to touch”), from pre-Germanic *deh₁g- (“to touch”), possibly a phonetically altered form of Proto-Indo-European *te-th₂g- (“to touch, take”) (see there for details).