Vocabulary

Take

Study the following vocabulary.

When he was a little boy, John used to take apart all of his toys because he liked to see how they worked. He was always very careful because he also liked to re-build each toy; this activity took up much of his time. Many adults were taken aback by his ability to concentrate at such a young age; his parents’ friends would take them aside and ask about John’s unique abilities. But John’s parents were not surprised about his ability to take in all of the complicated information, it was clear that he took after his father and grandfather, who were both mechanical engineers. They hoped that one day John would take over the family business and become an engineer as well.

take uptake up – to fill or use time or space
Preparation for the party took up the entire afternoon.

take off[2]take off – to remove; to begin a flight
I can’t take the lid off; it’s stuck!
Watch those birds take off from the tree, I wonder where they are going.

take aftertake after – to look or behave like an older relative
Unfortunately, she takes after her mother in that respect: they both get angry very easily.

take aback – to greatly surprise and confuse
They were taken aback by his unexpected appearance; he had cut off all of his hair and had shaved his beard.

take apart – to separate into pieces
They had to take apart the whole engine in order to repair the car.

take aside – to lead someone away from the group or another person
After the meeting, my boss took me aside to explain his true feelings about the new project.

take in – to fully understand something
I was not able to take in all that he was saying, it was very difficult to follow his discussion of the new policy.

take on – to accept
There is a shortage of full-time staff, so much of the work is taken on by the part-time workers.

take over – to gain control of, to become the person or group in charge
The military has taken over the enemy country.

take to – to begin to like
I took to her at once, she seemed to be such a charming person.