betake
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɪˈteɪk/
Audio (RP) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪk
Etymology 1
From Middle English betaken, bitaken, in form equivalent to be- + take, however, in sense from betæcen, betechen (“to beteach”). More at beteach.
Verb
betake (third-person singular simple present betakes, present participle betaking, simple past betook, past participle betaken)
- (transitive) To beteach.
Etymology 2
From Middle English bitaken, equivalent to be- + take. Cognate with Danish betage (“to take, deprive, cut off”), Swedish beta (“to take, deprive, cut off”).
Verb
betake (third-person singular simple present betakes, present participle betaking, simple past betook, past participle betaken)
- (transitive, obsolete) To take over to; take across (to); deliver.
- (transitive, obsolete) To seize; lay hold of; take. [from 15th c.]
- 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 194:
- a rain-cloud [...] had betaken a dusky brown color, and about its lower verge a fringe of fine straight lines of rain was suggested [...].
- 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 194:
- (reflexive, archaic) To take oneself to; go or move; repair; resort; have recourse. [from 17th c.]
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- The rest, in imitation, to like arms / Betook them.
- 1757, Edmund Burke, The Abridgement of the History of England
- They betook themselves to treaty and submission.
- 1831, Catherine Grace Frances Gore, The Tuileries, volume 3, page 175:
- […] the shepherds of Desvres were seen at a distance betaking themselves to the insufficient shelter of the turfen hovels dotted upon the cote to afford them a retreat from the vicissitudes of the atmosphere.
- 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 12:
- I was glad of my arrival for I was wearied with the way, and yellow of face for weakness and want; but my plight was pitiable and I knew not whither to betake me.
- 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 12,
- […] he mechanically rose, and sleepily wondering what could be in the wind, betook himself to the designated place […]
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- (reflexive, archaic) To commit to a specified action. [from 16th c.]
- (transitive, archaic) To commend or entrust to; to commit to.
- (intransitive, archaic) To take oneself. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Synonyms
- wend
Translations
to go or move
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to commit to a specified action.
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