Bysurface analysis,take +-ing.
taking (comparativemoretaking,superlativemosttaking)
- Alluring;attractive.
1655,Thomas Fuller, “The Tenth Century”, inThe Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […],→OCLC,(please specify |book=I to XI),page128:[…] aProteus-Devil appeared unto him, changing into Shapes, but fixing himself at last into the form of a Fair Woman. Strange, that Satan (so subtil in making his Temptations mosttaking) should preferre this form[…]
1793,Charles Dibdin, chapter 9, inThe Younger Brother[1], volume 2, London: for the author, page263:His speech from the hustings was very original, and therefore verytaking.
1878,Thomas Hardy,The Return of the Native[2], Book 3, Chapter 1:“Yes, Paris must be ataking place,” said Humphrey. “Grand shop-winders, trumpets, and drums; and here be we out of doors in all winds and weathers—”
1909, Frank Sidgwick,Love and battles, page291:The gentleman had left for London after lunch. Yes, alone; but he had lunched in the hotel with a lady. A young lady. A verytaking young lady. She called him uncle. But walked away in another direction as his cab started. The porter's eye was beginning to twinkle;[…]
- (obsolete)Infectious;contagious.
c.1603–1606,William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene iv]:All the stor’d vengeances of heaven fall
On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
Youtaking airs, with lameness!
taking (countable anduncountable,pluraltakings)
- The act by which something is taken.
1900,Joseph Conrad, chapter 27, inLord Jim[4], Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, page290:At thetaking of the stockade he had distinguished himself greatly by the methodical ferocity of his fighting.
2010, Ian Ayres,Optional Law: The Structure of Legal Entitlements, page75:Second, they argue that giving the original owner a take-back option might lead to an infinite sequence oftakings and retakings if the exercise price for the take-back option (i.e., the damages assessed at each round) is set too low.
- (uncountable) Aseizure of someone's goods or possessions.
- (uncountable) A state of mentaldistress, resulting in excited or erratic behavior (in the expressionin a taking).
1847,Emily Brontë,Wuthering Heights,vol. 2, ch. 16, p. 321:"[...] at last, he proceeded from staring to touching; he put out his hand and stroked one curl, as gently as if it were a bird. He might have stuck a knife into her neck, she started round in such ataking.
"'Get away, this moment! How dare you touch me? Why are you stopping there?' she cried, in a tone of disgust. [...]
1874,Thomas Hardy, chapter 30, inFar from the Madding Crowd[5]:“And, dear miss, you won’t harry me and storm at me, will you? because you seem to swell so tall as a lion then, and it frightens me! Do you know, I fancy you would be a match for any man when you are in one o’ yourtakings.”
1934,Agatha Christie, chapter 4, inMurder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published2017, page102:‘Poor soul - she was quite in ataking. You see, she’d opened the door to the next compartment by mistake.’
1970,Mary Stewart,The Crystal Cave[6], New York: Fawcett Crest, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 26:“[...] there’ll be a beating for someone, by my reckoning, if he’s not there by the time the King’s looking round for him. He’s been in a raretaking since the outriders came in, that I can tell you.”
- (in theplural, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland)Cash ormoneyreceived (by ashop or otherbusiness, for example).
- Synonyms:income,receipts
Fred was concerned because thetakings from his sweetshop had fallen again for the third week.
Count the shop'stakings.
1929,Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, inA Room of One’s Own[7], London: The Hogarth Press, published1931, page60:[...] the woman who keeps the greengrocer’s shop was adding up the day’stakings with her hands in red mittens.
1961 October, “Talking of Trains: Last of the M.S.W.J.R.”, inTrains Illustrated, page586:According to T. B. Sands in his history of the M.S.W.J.R. (Oakwood Press: 8s 6d) Fay at first had to await cashtakings from stations before he could pay his staff; [...].
1995,Rohinton Mistry, chapter 12, inA Fine Balance[8], Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, pages554–555:The child was not returned to the mother. [...] strangers giving him suck found it easier to display the utter despair in their faces that made for successful begging, whereas if [the mother] had had the pleasure of clasping her little son to her bosom all day, it would have been impossible to keep a spark of joy, however tiny, out of her eyes, which would have adversely affected thetakings.
act by which something is taken
seizure of someone's goods or possessions
cash or money received (in the plural)
taking
- presentparticiple andgerund oftake
1892,Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, inThe Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers, […],→OCLC,page16:Athelstan Arundel walked home […], foaming and raging.[…] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, withouttaking the least notice of them.
taking (Baybayin spellingᜆᜃᜒᜅ᜔)
- (Taal Batangas)boy
- Synonyms:totoy,toto,tuto,itoy
