take // verb, noun

■ verb [+ obj] (took // taken //)

1

to earn a particular amount of money by selling goods or services:

The store took $100 000 last week.

⇨ TAKE STH IN (1)

2

to move sth/sb from one place, level, situation, etc. to another:

Her energy and talent took her to the top of her profession.

3 (used with an adverb or a preposition)

to remove sth/sb from somewhere:

The product has been taken off the market until safety tests have been done.

The sign must be taken down.

They have been taking market share away from their rivals.

My name had been taken off the list.

4

to get control of sth/sb:

Under the plan, creditors will take control of the company.

⇨ CHARGE noun (4)

5

to choose, buy or rent sth:

I'll take the grey jacket.

We took a room at the hotel for two nights.

6 take A (away) from B | take A away (not used in the continuous tenses)

to reduce one number by the value of another:

Take costs away from sales income and what is left is profit.

SYN SUBTRACT

7 (not usually used in the continuous tenses or in the form be taken)

to accept or receive sth:

If they offer me the job, I'll take it.

Does the hotel take credit cards?

I'll take the call in my office.

We took more than 1 000 orders last month.

Workers were asked to take 4% pay cuts.

IDIOMS

have (got) what it takes

to have the quality, ability, etc. needed to be successful:

He doesn't have what it takes to lead such a large team.

take a bath (AmE) (slang)

to lose a lot of money, for example on a business agreement or an investment:

Big investors sold their shares before the price crashed, but small investors took a bath.

After 18 months of success, computer shares took a bath.

take a bite out of sth

to reduce sth by a large amount:

The costs of starting up the company took a €6 million bite out of earnings.

take a dive (informal)

to suddenly get worse:

Profits really took a dive last year.

take advantage of sth/sb

to make use of sth/sb well; to make use of an opportunity:

The company was slow to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the Internet.

take advice (from sb)

to ask sb with special knowledge or skill for information or help in a difficult situation:

The company has taken advice from its accountants.

take it or leave it

used to say that you do not care if sb accepts or rejects sth:

They made their offer and told us to take it or leave it.

take sth on board

to accept and understand an idea or a suggestion:

The idea that the company must modernize has now been taken on board.

take a risk; take risks

to do sth even though you know that sth bad could happen as a result:

Every time we lend money, we are taking a risk that we won't be repaid.

You must be willing to take risks to gain an advantage over competitors.

take some doing (informal)

to be very difficult to do:

The new system will take some getting used to.

take stock

1 (Accounting ) (especially AmE)

to count the items for sale in a shop/store ⇨ STOCKTAKING

2

to stop and think carefully about the way in which a particular situation is developing in order to decide what to do next:

We're meeting next week to take stock of progress to date.

take time out (of/from sth) (to do sth)

to spend some time away from your usual work or activity in order to rest or do sth else instead:

When people don't take time out, they stop being productive.

He took time out of his busy day to teach new employees.

take a (heavy/terrible) toll (on sb/sth); take its/their toll (on sb/sth)

to have a bad effect on sb/sth; to cause a lot of damage, suffering, etc:

Falling stock markets have taken their toll.

Stress took a heavy toll on him.

Rents sometimes take a huge toll on savings.

take a (dramatic, unexpected, etc.) turn (for the worse/better)

to suddenly start getting worse/better:

Latest figures suggest that the economy is taking a turn for the better.

ADVANTAGE, EFFECT, RIDE noun

PHRASAL VERBS

take sth apart

to separate a machine, etc. into the different parts that it is made of

take sth back

if you take sth back to a shop/store, or if a shop/store takes sth back, you return sth that you have bought there, for example because it is the wrong size or does not work

take sth forward

to work with sth in order to develop it and make it successful:

We believe he is the right man to take this company forward.

take sth in

1 (especially AmE)

to earn a particular amount of money:

The business took in $9 million last year.

⇨ TAKE verb (1)

2

to accept new people, etc:

The EU will take in more new members next year.

take off

1

(about a product, an idea, etc.) to become successful or popular very quickly or suddenly:

The new magazine has really taken off.

The company was formed in the early 1990s, before the technology boom took off.

2

(about an aircraft, etc.) to leave the ground:

We took off an hour late.

OPP LAND ⇨ TAKE-OFF

take sth off

to have a period of time as a break from work:

I'm taking tomorrow off.

take sb off sth (often be taken off sth)

to remove sb from sth such as a job, position, piece of equipment, etc:

200 staff have been taken off the project.

take sth off sth

to remove an amount of money in order to reduce the total:

They have taken 10% off their prices in order to attract more customers.

take sb on

1

to employ sb:

We have taken on 25 new staff this year.

She was taken on as a trainee. See note at EMPLOY

2

to compete or fight against sb:

After only a year, the company is already taking on established companies in the marketplace.

take sth/sb on

to decide to do sth; to agree to be responsible for sth/sb:

This is the largest project we have ever taken on.

take sth out

to obtain an official document or service:

to take out insurance/a loan

take sth out (of sth)

to remove money from a bank account

take sth out of sth

to remove an amount of money from a larger amount, especially as a payment:

About 20% is taken out of salaries as tax.

take over (from sb); take sth over (from sb)

to begin to have control of or responsibility for sth, especially in place of sb else:

Mazza will take over from Mudu as chairman.

The factory was losing money when we took it over.

take sth over (Finance )

to gain control of a company, especially by buying shares:

The supermarket chain was taken over by a rival.

They have made an informal offer to take over the airline.

TAKEOVER

take sth up

1

to start or begin sth such as a job:

She takes up her position as CEO next month.

2

to accept sth that is offered or available:

He decided to take up the redundancy offer.

take sth up with sb

to speak or write to sb about sth that they may be able to deal with or help you with:

She took up her complaint with the union.

■ noun [C, usually sing.] (especially AmE)

TAX TAKE

(Accounting , informal)

the amount of money that is earned by a business during a particular period:

Last year's take totalled $10.2 million.

⇨ TAKINGS

IDIOMS

be on the take (informal)

to accept money from sb for helping them in a dishonest or an illegal way

• determine
• devalue
• develop
• developed
• developer
• developing
• development
• development area
• development bank
• development corporation
• development economics
• development grant
• development land
• deviation
• device
• devise
• devolve
• diagnostic
• diagram
• dial
• dialling code
• dialog box
• dial-up
• diary
• Dictaphone™