betake

present singular third person betakes · participle present betaking · past betook · participle past betaken

1. obsoletetransitiveTo take over to; take across (to); deliver.
2. obsoletetransitiveTo seize; lay hold of; take.First known use 15th c.

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

   1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 194

3. literaryreflexiveTo take oneself to; go or move; repair; resort; have recourse.First known use 17th c.

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

   1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   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, […]

   a. 1657, Joseph Hall, “Observations on Some Specialties of Divine Providence in the Life of Jos. Hall, Bishop of Norwich”, in The Shaking of the Olive-Tree. The Remaining Works of that Incomparable Prelate Joseph Hall, D.D. […], London: […] J. Cadwel for J[ohn] Crooke, […], published 1660, →OCLC, page 22

   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.

   1760, Edmund Burke, “An Essay towards an Abridgment of the English History. […]. Chapter I. Causes of the Connexion between the Romans and Britains.—Cæsar’s Two Invasions of Britain.”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, new edition, volume X, London: […] [R. Gilbert] for C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], published 1826, →OCLC, book I, page 173

   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.

   1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 235

   […] 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.

   1831, Catherine Grace Frances Gore, The Tuileries, volume III, page 175

   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.

   1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 12”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC

4. archaicreflexiveTo commit to a specified action.First known use 16th c.
5. archaictransitiveTo commend or entrust to; to commit to.
6. archaicintransitiveoftenpoeticTo take oneself.

   Then do no further goe, no further stray, / But here lie downe, and to thy rest betake, / Th'ill to preuent, that life ensewen may. / For what hath life, that may it loued make, / And giues not rather cause it to forsake?

   1590, Edmund Spenser, Canto IX, in The Faerie Queene, Book I, Stanza 44, lines 1–5

present singular third person betakes · participle present betaking · past betook · participle past betaken

1. transitiveTo beteach.