take in

See also: take-in

English

Verb

take in (third-person singular simple present takes in, present participle taking in, simple past took in, past participle taken in)

1. (transitive) To absorb or comprehend.

   The news is a lot to take in right now.

   I was so sleepy that I hardly took in any of the lecture.
2. (transitive) To allow a person or an animal to live in one's home.

   take in a stray cat

3. (transitive) To receive (goods) into one's home for the purpose of processing for a fee.

   In hard times, some women would take in washing and others dressmaking repairs.

4. (transitive) To shorten (a garment) or make it smaller.

   Try taking the skirt in a little around the waist.

5. To attend a showing of.

   take in a show

   take in a movie

6. To deceive; to hoodwink.
7. (transitive, climbing) To tighten (a belaying rope). (Also take up.)
8. (obsolete) To subscribe to home delivery of.
   • 1844 January 23, cross-examination in the case of R v Daniel O'Connell, et al., reprinted in, 1844, John Flanedy, editor, A Special Report of the Proceedings in the Case of the Queen against Daniel O'Connell […] on an Indictment for Conspiracy and Misdemeanour, page 218 [1]:

     [James Whiteside:] May I ask what newspaper you take in? [John Jolly:] I take in no newspaper.

     [James Whiteside:] Well, then, what newspapers do you read? [John Jolly:] I am glad to see any of them.

9. (nautical) To reef.
   • 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC:

     The second mate holds on to the main top-gallant sail until a heavy sea is shipped, and washes over the forecastle as though the whole ocean had come aboard; when a noise further aft shows that that sail, too, is taking in.

Translations

absorb; comprehend

• Bulgarian: поемам (bg) (poemam), попивам (bg) (popivam)
• French: absorber (fr), assimiler (fr)
• Hungarian: befogad (hu), felfog (hu)
• Italian: impegnare (it), vincolare (it), assorbire (it), prendere (it)

allow to live in one's home

• Bulgarian: приемам (bg) (priemam)
• Hungarian: befogad (hu)
• Italian: accogliere (it), ospitare (it)
• Polish: przygarniać (pl) impf, przygarnąć (pl) pf
• Portuguese: acolher (pt)
• Spanish: acoger (es), hospedar (es)

receive into one's home for the purpose of processing for a fee

• Italian: fare lavoretti in casa

deceive; hoodwink

• Esperanto: superruzi
• Finnish: jymäyttää
• French: duper (fr), rouler (fr)
• German: einwickeln (de)
• Ido: dupigar (io)
• Italian: imbrogliare (it), ingannare (it), abbindolare (it)
• Japanese: 騙す (ja) (damasu)

attend a showing of

subscribe to home delivery

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} ta in (sv) (3,4)

Anagrams

• Aitken, Kantei, intake, kaiten, kentia, kinate, tankie