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Take arms   /teɪk ɑrmz/   Listen
verb
Take  v. t.  (past took; past part. taken; pres. part. taking)  
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:
(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. "This man was taken of the Jews." "Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take; Not that themselves are wise, but others weak." "They that come abroad after these showers are commonly taken with sickness." "There he blasts the tree and takes the cattle And makes milch kine yield blood."
(b)
To gain or secure the interest or affection of; to captivate; to engage; to interest; to charm. "Neither let her take thee with her eyelids." "Cleombroutus was so taken with this prospect, that he had no patience." "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."
(c)
To make selection of; to choose; also, to turn to; to have recourse to; as, to take the road to the right. "Saul said, Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken." "The violence of storming is the course which God is forced to take for the destroying... of sinners."
(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. "This man always takes time... before he passes his judgments."
(e)
To form a likeness of; to copy; to delineate; to picture; as, to take a picture of a person. "Beauty alone could beauty take so right."
(f)
To draw; to deduce; to derive. (R.) "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."
(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.
(h)
To lead; to conduct; as, to take a child to church.
(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. "He took me certain gold, I wot it well."
(j)
To remove; to withdraw; to deduct; with from; as, to take the breath from one; to take two from four.
2.
In a somewhat passive sense, to receive; to bear; to endure; to acknowledge; to accept. Specifically:
(a)
To accept, as something offered; to receive; not to refuse or reject; to admit. "Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer." "Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore."
(b)
To receive as something to be eaten or drunk; to partake of; to swallow; as, to take food or wine.
(c)
Not to refuse or balk at; to undertake readily; to clear; as, to take a hedge or fence.
(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.
(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. "You take me right." "Charity, taken in its largest extent, is nothing else but the science love of God and our neighbor." "(He) took that for virtue and affection which was nothing but vice in a disguise." "You'd doubt his sex, and take him for a girl."
(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. "I take thee at thy word." "Yet thy moist clay is pliant to command;... Not take the mold."
3.
To make a picture, photograph, or the like, of; as, to take a group or a scene. (Colloq.)
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.)
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."
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?"
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."
(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."
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.) "For now Troy's broad-wayed town He shall take in."
(g)
To receive into the mind or understanding. "Some bright genius can take in a long train of propositions."
(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."
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.)
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.
(d)
To put an end to; as, to take the conceit out of a man.
(e)
To escort; as, to take out to dinner.
To take over, to undertake; to take the management of. (Eng.)
To take part, to share; as, they take part in our rejoicing.
To take part with, to unite with; to join with.
To take place, To take root, To take sides, To take stock, etc. See under Place, Root, Side, etc.
To take the air.
(a)
(Falconry) To seek to escape by trying to rise higher than the falcon; said of a bird.
(b)
See under Air.
To take the field. (Mil.) See under Field.
To take thought, to be concerned or anxious; to be solicitous.
To take to heart. See under Heart.
To take to task, to reprove; to censure.
To take up.
(a)
To lift; to raise.
(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.
(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."
(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.) "The ancients took up experiments upon credit."
(i)
To answer by reproof; to reprimand; to berate. "One of his relations took him up roundly."
(j)
To begin where another left off; to keep up in continuous succession; to take up (a topic, an activity). "Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale."
(k)
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."
(l)
To comprise; to include. "The noble poem of Palemon and Arcite... takes up seven years."
(m)
To receive, accept, or adopt for the purpose of assisting; to espouse the cause of; to favor.
(n)
To collect; to exact, as a tax; to levy; as, to take up a contribution. "Take up commodities upon our bills."
(o)
To pay and receive; as, to take up a note at the bank.
(p)
(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.
(q)
To make up; to compose; to settle; as, to take up a quarrel. (Obs.) (s) To accept from someone, as a wager or a challenge; as, J. took M. up on his challenge.
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.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Take arms" Quotes from Famous Books



... plain to him and to everyone else that civil war must shortly follow. Cruelty on one side was answered by cruelty on the other, and Palissy had thrown in his lot with the Huguenots, and by his writings as well as his words urged them to take arms against the Catholics. Perhaps the artist in him may have grieved to hear of the destruction in the beautiful churches of the carved images of the saints that were broken by axes and hammers; of the pictures that were burned, or the old illuminated manuscripts that ...
— The Red Book of Heroes • Leonora Blanche Lang
... after he had hastily perused the papers, "my lady liege showeth good argument for your assent to two, at least, of these undertakings. See the names of fifty gentlemen ready to take arms in your cause if authorized by your royal warrant. The men of the North are malcontent with the usurper, but they will not yet stir, unless at your own command. Such documents will, of course, be used with discretion, and not ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... word was sent to Murray at Glasgow that he must resign the regency, and should be pardoned in common with all offenders against the Queen. But on the day when Mary arrived at Hamilton, Murray had summoned to Glasgow the feudatories of the crown, to take arms against the insurgent enemies of ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various
... No one knew, at least no one would tell. Billy Wise said that all sorts of things had been handed into the boat, and that the men had told him that they were spades to dig sand. Grey and I agreed that, though we could not have ventured to disobey orders and take arms, since the muskets were there, if we should meet with an enemy, it would of course be our duty to use them. The chances, however, of our falling in ...
— Marmaduke Merry - A Tale of Naval Adventures in Bygone Days • William H. G. Kingston
... fever heat the agitation failed because the orator proved to be a voice and nothing more. He yielded meekly to the proclamation of the government forbidding further meetings, and his followers forsook him when they saw that he would not cross the Rubicon and take arms after words had failed. The society called "Young Ireland," formed about 1840, took up the agitation for Irish nationality, and carried it to greater lengths than O'Connell had dared. Its fiery young ...
— Ten Englishmen of the Nineteenth Century • James Richard Joy
... and went, and the signal for action, when they were masters of Chalons, was never given. When volunteers were called out to resist them, men with black cockades went about interrupting the enrolment, and declaring that no man should take arms, except to deliver the king. Their mysterious leader, Cottereau, the first to bear the historic name of Jean Chouan, was La Rouerie's right hand. When the prospect of combination with the Powers was ...
— Lectures on the French Revolution • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton
... Henry III, had made when the news reached Europe of the captivity of Louis IX in Egypt. After the example of Edward, his brother, Prince Edmund, with the earls of Pembroke and Warwick, and many knights and barons, agreed to take arms against the infidels. The same zeal for the deliverance of the holy places was manifested in Scotland, when John Baliol and several nobles enrolled themselves under the ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume VI. • Various
... more heroism now than many soldiers who risk life on the battle field. For the worst foe to fight and conquer is Ridicule; and he and others in high places have attackted Fashion so entrenched in the solid armour of Habit that most public men wouldn't have dasted to take arms agin it. ...
— Samantha on the Woman Question • Marietta Holley
... but there were still in the neighborhood, on the English side, many hamlets and farms, with barns full of grain and hay. Le Loutre's Indians now threatened to plunder and kill the inhabitants if they did not take arms against the English. Few complied, and the greater part fled to the woods.[112] On this the Indians and their Acadian allies set the houses and barns on fire, and laid waste the whole district, leaving the inhabitants no choice but to seek food and ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman
... acknowledged as his offspring. This child, however, was soon removed, having being burned to death in the house of its foster-mother. But its decease effected little or no change in his feelings towards his brothers, who, pursuing the principles they had so early avowed, were among the first to take arms among the patriots of Virginia, and fell, as Roland had said, at Norfolk, leaving each an orphan child—Roland, then a youth of fifteen, and Edith, a child of ten, to the mercy of the elder brother. Their death ...
— Nick of the Woods • Robert M. Bird


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