Meaning

(transitive, obsolete) To take over to; take across (to); deliver..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive, obsolete) To take over to; take across (to); deliver.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To seize; lay hold of; take.
3. (reflexive, literary) To take oneself to; go or move; repair; resort; have recourse.
4. (reflexive, archaic) To commit to a specified action.
5. (transitive, archaic) To commend or entrust to; to commit to.
6. (intransitive, archaic, often poetic) To take oneself.
7. (transitive) To beteach.

Example Sentences

a rain-cloud [...] had betaken a dusky brown color, and about its lower verge a fringe of fine straight lines of rain was suggested [...].

One morning as I lay in my bed, a ſtrong motion vvas ſuddenly glanced into my thoughts of going to London; I aroſe and betook me to the vvay, […]

The rest, in imitation, to like arms / Betook them.

On the slightest loss they betook themselves to treaty and submission; upon the least appearance in their favour they were as ready to resume their arms, without any regard to their former engagements;—a conduct, which demonstrates, that our British ancestors had no regular polity with a standing coercive power.

This knave, […] shoes horses better than e'er a man betwixt us and Iceland; and so he gives up his practice on the bipeds, the two-legged and unfledged species, called mankind, and betakes him entirely to shoeing of horses.

[…] 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.

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.

[H]he mechanically rose, and sleepily wondering what could be in the wind, betook himself to the designated place […]

Word Forms

• betakes
• betaking
• betook
• betaken

Synonyms for betake

Related Words

When Should You Use Betake?

Use betake when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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