To be taken aback

Take Take, v. t. [imp. {Took} (t[oo^]k); p. p. {Taken} (t[=a]k'n); 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: [1913 Webster] (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 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. [1913 Webster]

This man was taken of the Jews. --Acts xxiii. 27. [1913 Webster]

Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take; Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

They that come abroad after these showers are commonly taken with sickness. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]

There he blasts the tree and takes the cattle And makes milch kine yield blood. --Shak. [1913 Webster] (b) To gain or secure the interest or affection of; to captivate; to engage; to interest; to charm. [1913 Webster]

Neither let her take thee with her eyelids. --Prov. vi. 25. [1913 Webster]

Cleombroutus was so taken with this prospect, that he had no patience. --Wake. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster] (c) To make selection of; to choose; also, to turn to; to have recourse to; as, to take the road to the right. [1913 Webster]

Saul said, Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken. --1 Sam. xiv. 42. [1913 Webster]

The violence of storming is the course which God is forced to take for the destroying . . . of sinners. --Hammond. [1913 Webster] (d) 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. [1913 Webster]

This man always takes time . . . before he passes his judgments. --I. Watts. [1913 Webster] (e) To form a likeness of; to copy; to delineate; to picture; as, to take a picture of a person. [1913 Webster]

Beauty alone could beauty take so right. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] (f) To draw; to deduce; to derive. [R.] [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster] (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. [1913 Webster] (h) To lead; to conduct; as, to take a child to church. [1913 Webster] (i) 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. [1913 Webster]

He took me certain gold, I wot it well. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] (k) To remove; to withdraw; to deduct; -- with from; as, to take the breath from one; to take two from four. [1913 Webster]

2. In a somewhat passive sense, to receive; to bear; to endure; to acknowledge; to accept. Specifically: [1913 Webster] (a) To accept, as something offered; to receive; not to refuse or reject; to admit. [1913 Webster]

Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer. --Num. xxxv. 31. [1913 Webster]

Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore. --1 Tim. v. 10. [1913 Webster] (b) To receive as something to be eaten or drunk; to partake of; to swallow; as, to take food or wine. [1913 Webster] (c) Not to refuse or balk at; to undertake readily; to clear; as, to take a hedge or fence. [1913 Webster] (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. [1913 Webster] (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. [1913 Webster]

You take me right. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]

Charity, taken in its largest extent, is nothing else but the science love of God and our neighbor. --Wake. [1913 Webster]

[He] took that for virtue and affection which was nothing but vice in a disguise. --South. [1913 Webster]

You'd doubt his sex, and take him for a girl. --Tate. [1913 Webster] (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. [1913 Webster]

I take thee at thy word. --Rowe. [1913 Webster]

Yet thy moist clay is pliant to command; . . . Not take the mold. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

3. To make a picture, photograph, or the like, of; as, to take a group or a scene. [Colloq.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

4. 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.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

{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 take ground 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.] [1913 Webster]

For now Troy's broad-wayed town He shall take in. --Chapman. [1913 Webster] (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 on}, to assume; to take upon one's self; as, to take on a character or responsibility.

{To take one's own course}, to act one's pleasure; to pursue the measures of one's own choice.

{To take order for}. See under {Order}.

{To take order with}, to check; to hinder; to repress. [Obs.] --Bacon.

{To take orders}. (a) To receive directions or commands. (b) (Eccl.) To enter some grade of the ministry. See {Order}, n., 10.

{To take out}. (a) To remove from within a place; to separate; to deduct. (b) To draw out; to remove; to clear or cleanse from; as, to take out a stain or spot from cloth. (c) To produce for one's self; as, to take out a patent.

{To take up}. (a) To lift; to raise. --Hood. (b) To buy or borrow; as, to take up goods to a large amount; to take up money at the bank. (c) To begin; as, to take up a lamentation. --Ezek. xix. 1. (d) To gather together; to bind up; to fasten or to replace; as, to take up raveled stitches; specifically (Surg.), to fasten with a ligature. (e) To engross; to employ; to occupy or fill; as, to take up the time; to take up a great deal of room. (f) To take permanently. ``Arnobius asserts that men of the finest parts . . . took up their rest in the Christian religion.'' --Addison. (g) To seize; to catch; to arrest; as, to take up a thief; to take up vagabonds. (h) To admit; to believe; to receive. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

The ancients took up experiments upon credit. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] (i) To answer by reproof; to reprimand; to berate. [1913 Webster]

One of his relations took him up roundly. --L'Estrange. [1913 Webster] (k) To begin where another left off; to keep up in continuous succession. [1913 Webster]

Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale. --Addison. [1913 Webster] [1913 Webster] (l) To assume; to adopt as one's own; to carry on or manage; as, to take up the quarrels of our neighbors; to take up current opinions. ``They take up our old trade of conquering.'' --Dryden. (m) To comprise; to include. ``The noble poem of Palemon and Arcite . . . takes up seven years.'' --Dryden. (n) To receive, accept, or adopt for the purpose of assisting; to espouse the cause of; to favor. --Ps. xxvii. 10. (o) To collect; to exact, as a tax; to levy; as, to take up a contribution. ``Take up commodities upon our bills.'' --Shak. (p) To pay and receive; as, to take up a note at the bank. (q) (Mach.) To remove, as by an adjustment of parts; as, to take up lost motion, as in a bearing; also, to make tight, as by winding, or drawing; as, to take up slack thread in sewing. (r) To make up; to compose; to settle; as, to take up a quarrel. [Obs.] --Shak.

{To take up arms}. Same as {To take arms}, above.

{To take upon one's self}. (a) To assume; to undertake; as, he takes upon himself to assert that the fact is capable of proof. (b) To appropriate to one's self; to allow to be imputed to, or inflicted upon, one's self; as, to take upon one's self a punishment.

{To take up the gauntlet}. See under {Gauntlet}. [1913 Webster]