taking
nounEtymology By surface analysis, take + -ing.
1
The act by which something is taken.
- At the taking of the stockade he had distinguished himself greatly by the methodical ferocity of his fighting.1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 27, in Lord Jim, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, page 290:
- Second, they argue that giving the original owner a take-back option might lead to an infinite sequence of takings and retakings if the exercise price for the take-back option (i.e., the damages assessed at each round) is set too low.2010, Ian Ayres, Optional Law: The Structure of Legal Entitlements, page 75:
2
A seizure of someone's goods or possessions.
3
A state of mental distress, resulting in excited or erratic behavior (in the expression in a taking).
- What a taking was hee in, when your husband askt who was in the basket?1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, Scene III:
- "[...] 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 a taking. "'Get away, this moment! How dare you touch me? Why are you stopping there?' she cried, in a tone of disgust. [...]1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, vol. 2, ch. 16, p. 321:
3 more examples
- “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’ your takings.”1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter 30, in Far from the Madding Crowd:
- ‘Poor soul - she was quite in a taking. You see, she’d opened the door to the next compartment by mistake.’1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 102:
- “[...] 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 rare taking since the outriders came in, that I can tell you.”1970, Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave, New York: Fawcett Crest, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 26:
4
Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, In plural Cash or money received (by a shop or other business, for example).
- Fred was concerned because the takings from his sweetshop had fallen again for the third week.
- Count the shop's takings.
3 more examples
- [...] the woman who keeps the greengrocer’s shop was adding up the day’s takings with her hands in red mittens.1929, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in A Room of One’s Own, London: The Hogarth Press, published 1931, page 60:
- 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 cash takings from stations before he could pay his staff; [...].1961 October, “Talking of Trains: Last of the M.S.W.J.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 586:
- 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 the takings.1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 12, in A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, pages 554–555:
- Synonyms
- acquisition, taking
- Antonyms
- bestowal, restitution
- Related terms
- side-taking, take, taker
- Hypernyms
- receiving
- Hyponyms
- seizure