take to
Britishverb
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to make for; flee to
to take to the hills
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to form a liking for, esp after a short acquaintance
I took to him straightaway
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to have recourse to
to take to the bottle
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to regard seriously
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Have recourse to, go to, as in They took to the woods . [c. 1200]
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Develop as a habit or steady practice, as in He took to coming home later and later . [c. 1300]
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Become fond of, like, as in I took to him immediately , or The first time she skied she took to it . This expression, from the mid-1700s, is sometimes expanded to take to it like a duck to water , a simile dating from the late 1800s.
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take to be . Understand, consider, or assume, as in I took it to be the right entrance . [Mid-1500s] Also see the subsequent entries beginning with take to .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Temu must now pay the fine and present a plan to the EU by August 28 that includes what action it will take to address the breaches.
From Barron's • May 28, 2026
The Man of Steel combats gigantic robots programmed to abscond with jewels and other valuables and then take to the air to return to their mad-genius minder.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
Cal wants to see Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens take to the SNL UK stage.
From BBC • May 17, 2026
Experts analyze what it would take to head off disaster.
From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2026
During the three months that it took to write and ponder the paragraph above, I often wondered what it would take to explain this process to someone who hadn’t lived it.
From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
