Verb

To get or put something into one's or someone's possession or control.

#To grasp with the hands.

#To pick up and move to oneself.

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#*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}

#To carry or move, especially to a particular destination.

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#*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.}}

#To lead; to conduct.

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#*2002 ,

#*:They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!

#To choose.

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#*(Bible), 1 (w) xiv 42

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

#To accept.

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#*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Schumpeter

, title= Cronies and capitols , passage=Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.}}

#To receive (a newspaper, magazine, etc.) regularly, as by paying the subscription.

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#(lb) To gain a position by force.

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#To ingest medicine, drugs, etc.

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#*

#*:To such men as Mr. Hellyer, who every night take much strong drink, and on no occasion whatever take any exercise, sixty is the grand climacteric. He was, a year ago, just fifty-nine. Alas! he has not even reached his grand climacteric. Already he is gone. He was cut off by pneumonia, or apoplexy, last Christmas.

#To capture using a photographic camera.

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#To observe; to gather information on.

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#(lb) To form a likeness of; to copy; to depict.

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#*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

#*:Beauty alone could beauty take so right.

#(lb) To deliver, give (something); to entrust.

#*:

#*:for thy loue I haue lefte my countrey / And sythe ye shalle departe oute of this world / leue me somme token of yours that I may thynke on you / Ioseph said that wille I doo ful gladly / Now brynge me your sheld that I toke yow whanne ye went in to bataille ageynst kyng Tolleme

#*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) XXIII:

#*:Jesus perceaved there wylynes, and sayde: Why tempte ye me ye ypocrytes? lett me se the tribute money. And they toke hym a peny.

(lb) To have or change a state of mind or body.

#(lb) To endure or cope with.

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# To assume or interpret to be.

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#*, chapter=22

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago.}}

#(lb) To become.

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#(lb) To enroll (in a class, or a course of study).

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#(lb) To participate in, undergo, or experience.

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#(lb) To habituate to or gain competency at a task.

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#(lb) To perform or undertake, for example, a task.

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#*

#*:To such men as Mr. Hellyer, who every night take much strong drink, and on no occasion whatever take any exercise, sixty is the grand climacteric. He was, a year ago, just fifty-nine. Alas! he has not even reached his grand climacteric. Already he is gone. He was cut off by pneumonia, or apoplexy, last Christmas.

#*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or

#(lb) To experience or feel, for example, offence.

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#*, chapter=1

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”}}

#*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=20 citation , passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.

#(lb) To go.

#*2007 , Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon , Blue Bridge, 2008, p.59:

#*:Nicholas then took himself to Avignon where in August 1330 he formally renounced his claim to the papacy.

(lb) To require or limit.

#(lb) To support or carry without failing or breaking.

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#(lb) To need, require.

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#*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-31, volume=408, issue=8851, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Code blue , passage=Time was it took a war to close a financial exchange. Now all it needs is a glitch in technology. On August 26th trading on Eurex, the main German derivatives exchange, opened as usual; 20 minutes later it shut down for about an hour. Four days earlier the shares of every company listed on NASDAQ, an American stock exchange, ceased trading for three hours.}}

#(lb) To last or expend [an amount of time].

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To decide or to act.

#(lb) To not swing at a pitch.

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#(lb) To tighten (take up) a belaying rope. Often used imperatively.

#(lb) To catch the ball; especially for the wicket-keeper to catch the ball after the batsman has missed or edged it.

#To be the player who performs (a free kick, etc.).

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#Not to refuse or balk at; to undertake readily; to clear.

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(lb) To have sex with.

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(lb) To fight or attempt to fight somebody. (See also take on.)

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(lb) To stick, persist, thrive or remain.

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*(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)

*:When flame taketh and openeth, it giveth a noise.

(lb) To use.

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(lb) To decide, react, or interact.

# To please; to gain reception; to succeed.

#*(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

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

#(lb) To consider as an instance or example.

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

#*(Bible), (w) vi.25:

#*:Neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

#*(William Wake) (1657-1737)

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

#*(Thomas Moore) (1779-1852)

#*: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.

#To bear without ill humour or resentment; to submit to; to tolerate; to endure.

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#To accept the word or offer of; to receive and accept.

#* (1674-1718)

#*:I take thee at thy word.

#To draw; to deduce; to derive.

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#*(John Tillotson) (1630-1694)

#*: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.

#To accept, as something offered; to receive; not to refuse or reject; to admit.

#*(Bible), (w) xxxv.31:

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

#*(Bible), v.10:

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

# To understand or interpret.

Verb

(en verb)

To change, swap.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter

, volume=100, issue=2, page=87, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

To move from one place to another; to redistribute.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.}}

To change position.

(obsolete) To change (one's clothes); also to change (someone's) underclothes.

*, II.ii.2:

'Tis very good to wash his hands and face often, to shift his clothes, to have fair linen about him, to be decently and comely attired […].

* Shakespeare

As it were to ride day and night; andnot to have patience to shift me.

To change gears (in a car).

(typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.

(computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.

(computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.

(computing) To remove the first value from an array.

To dispose of.

To hurry.

(Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.

To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.

* L'Estrange

Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can.

To practice indirect or evasive methods.

* Sir Walter Raleigh

All those schoolmen, though they were exceeding witty, yet better teach all their followers to shift , than to resolve by their distinctions.