Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Take \Take\, v. t. [imp. {Took}; p. p. {Takend}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Taking}.] [Icel. taka; akin to Sw. taga, Dan. tage, Goth.
t[=e]kan to touch; of uncertain origin.]
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. Hence, specifically:
(a) 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 am 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. --Acts xxiii.
27.
Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take;
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.
--Pope.
They that come abroad after these showers are
commonly taken with sickness. --Bacon.
There he blasts the tree and takes the cattle
And makes milch kine yield blood. --Shak.
(b) 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.
--Prov. vi.
25.
Cleombroutus was so taken with this prospect,
that he had no patience. --Wake.
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. --Moore.
(c) 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. --1 Sam. xiv.
42.
The violence of storming is the course which God
is forced to take for the destroying . . . of
sinners. --Hammond.
(d) To employ; to use; to occupy; hence, to demand; to
require; as, it takes so much cloth to make a coat.
This man always takes time . . . before he
passes his judgments. --I. Watts.
(e) To form a likeness of; to copy; to delineate; to
picture; as, to take picture of a person.
Beauty alone could beauty take so right.
--Dryden.
(f) 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. --Tillotson.
(g) 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.
(h) To lead; to conduct; as, to take a child to church.
(i) To carry; to convey; to deliver to another; to hand
over; as, he took the book to the bindery.
He took me certain gold, I wot it well.
--Chaucer.
(k) To remove; to withdraw; to deduct; -- with from; as,
to take the breath from one; to take two from four.
2. In a somewhat passive sense, to receive; to bear; to
endure; to acknowledge; to accept. Specifically:
(a) 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. --Num. xxxv.
31.
Let not a widow be taken into the number under
threescore. --1 Tim. v.
10.
(b) To receive as something to be eaten or dronk; to
partake of; to swallow; as, to take food or wine.
(c) Not to refuse or balk at; to undertake readily; to
clear; as, to take a hedge or fence.
(d) 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.
(e) 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. --Bacon.
Charity, taken in its largest extent, is nothing
else but the science love of God and our
neighbor. --Wake.
[He] took that for virtue and affection which
was nothing but vice in a disguise. --South.
You'd doubt his sex, and take him for a girl.
--Tate.
(f) 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. --Rowe.
Yet thy moist clay is pliant to command; . . .
Not take the mold. --Dryden.
{To be taken aback}, {To take advantage of}, {To take air},
etc. See under {Aback}, {Advantage}, etc.
{To take aim}, to direct the eye or weapon; to aim.
{To take along}, to carry, lead, or convey.
{To take arms}, to commence war or hostilities.
{To take away}, to carry off; to remove; to cause deprivation
of; to do away with; as, a bill for taking away the votes
of bishops. ``By your own law, I take your life away.''
--Dryden.
{To take breath}, to stop, as from labor, in order to breathe
or rest; to recruit or refresh one's self.
{To take care}, to exercise care or vigilance; to be
solicitous. ``Doth God take care for oxen?'' --1 Cor. ix.
9.
{To take care of}, to have the charge or care of; to care
for; to superintend or oversee.
{To take down}.
(a) To reduce; to bring down, as from a high, or higher,
place; as, to take down a book; hence, to bring lower;
to depress; to abase or humble; as, to take down
pride, or the proud. ``I never attempted to be
impudent yet, that I was not taken down.''
--Goldsmith.
(b) To swallow; as, to take down a potion.
(c) To pull down; to pull to pieces; as, to take down a
house or a scaffold.
(d) To record; to write down; as, to take down a man's
words at the time he utters them.
{To take effect}, {To take fire}. See under {Effect}, and
{Fire}.
{To take ground to the right} or {to the left} (Mil.), to
extend the line to the right or left; to move, as troops,
to the right or left.
{To take heart}, to gain confidence or courage; to be
encouraged.
{To take heed}, to be careful or cautious. ``Take heed what
doom against yourself you give.'' --Dryden.
{To take heed to}, to attend with care, as, take heed to thy
ways.
{To take hold of}, to seize; to fix on.
{To take horse}, to mount and ride a horse.
{To take in}.
(a) To inclose; to fence.
(b) To encompass or embrace; to comprise; to comprehend.
(c) To draw into a smaller compass; to contract; to brail
or furl; as, to take in sail.
(d) To cheat; to circumvent; to gull; to deceive.
[Colloq.]
(e) To admit; to receive; as, a leaky vessel will take in
water.
(f) To win by conquest. [Obs.]
For now Troy's broad-wayed town He shall take
in. --Chapman.
(g) To receive into the mind or understanding. ``Some
bright genius can take in a long train of
propositions.'' --I. Watts.
(h) To receive regularly, as a periodical work or
newspaper; to take. [Eng.]
{To take in hand}. See under {Hand}.
{To take in vain}, to employ or utter as in an oath. ``Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.''
--Ex. xx. 7.
{To take issue}. See under {Issue}.
{To take leave}. See {Leave}, n., 2.
{To take a newspaper}, {magazine}, or the like, to receive it
regularly, as on paying the price of subscription.
{To take notice}, to observe, or to observe with particular
attention.
{To take notice of}. See under {Notice}.
{To take oath}, to swear with solemnity, or in a judicial
manner.
{To take off}.
(a) To remove, as from the surface or outside; to remove
from the top of anything; as, to take off a load; to
take off one's hat.
(b) To cut off; as, to take off the head, or a limb.
(c) To destroy; as, to take off life.
(d) To remove; to invalidate; as, to take off the force of
an argument.
(e) To withdraw; to call or draw away. --Locke.
(f) To swallow; as, to take off a glass of wine.
(g) To purchase; to take in trade. ``The Spaniards having
no commodities that we will take off.'' --Locke.
(h) To copy; to reproduce. ``Take off all their models in
wood.'' --Addison.
(i) To imitate; to mimic; to personate.
(k) To find place for; to dispose of; as, more scholars
than preferments can take off. [R.] --Bacon.
Effect \Ef*fect"\, n. [L. effectus, fr. efficere, effectum, to
effect; ex + facere to make: cf. F. effet, formerly also
spelled effect. See {Fact}.]
1. Execution; performance; realization; operation; as, the
law goes into effect in May.
That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my
fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and
it. --Shak.
2. Manifestation; expression; sign.
All the large effects That troop with majesty.
--Shak.
3. In general: That which is produced by an agent or cause;
the event which follows immediately from an antecedent,
called the cause; result; consequence; outcome; fruit; as,
the effect of luxury.
The effect is the unfailing index of the amount of
the cause. --Whewell.
4. Impression left on the mind; sensation produced.
Patchwork . . . introduced for oratorical effect.
--J. C.
Shairp.
The effect was heightened by the wild and lonely
nature of the place. --W. Irving.
5. Power to produce results; efficiency; force; importance;
account; as, to speak with effect.
6. Consequence intended; purpose; meaning; general intent; --
with to.
They spake to her to that effect. --2 Chron.
xxxiv. 22.
7. The purport; the sum and substance. ``The effect of his
intent.'' --Chaucer.
8. Reality; actual meaning; fact, as distinguished from mere
appearance.
No other in effect than what it seems. --Denham.
9. pl. Goods; movables; personal estate; -- sometimes used to
embrace real as well as personal property; as, the people
escaped from the town with their effects.
{For effect}, for an exaggerated impression or excitement.
{In effect}, in fact; in substance. See 8, above.
{Of no effect}, {Of none effect}, {To no effect}, or {Without
effect}, destitute of results, validity, force, and the like;
vain; fruitless. ``Making the word of God of none effect
through your tradition.'' --Mark vii. 13. ``All my study
be to no effect.'' --Shak.
{To give effect to}, to make valid; to carry out in practice;
to push to its results.
{To take effect}, to become operative, to accomplish aims.
--Shak.
Syn: {Effect}, {Consequence}, {Result}.
Usage: These words indicate things which arise out of some
antecedent, or follow as a consequent. Effect, which
may be regarded as the generic term, denotes that
which springs directly from something which can
properly be termed a cause. A consequence is more
remote, not being strictly caused, nor yet a mere
sequence, but following out of and following
indirectly, or in the train of events, something on
which it truly depends. A result is still more remote
and variable, like the rebound of an elastic body
which falls in very different directions. We may
foresee the effects of a measure, may conjecture its
consequences, but can rarely discover its final
results.
Resolving all events, with their effects And
manifold results, into the will And arbitration
wise of the Supreme. --Cowper.
Shun the bitter consequence, for know, The day
thou eatest thereof, . . . thou shalt die.
--Milton.