take something to

present singular third person takes something to · participle present taking something to · past took something to · participle past taken something to

1. To apply (some instrument or implement) to (something else, to undertake a task or attack upon it, usually vigorously).

   A lot of officers when they knock off a still will take an axe to the barrels.

   1973, Albert J. Reiss, The Police and the Public, page 44

   5 more examples

   The last guy to take a mower to this place must have been General MacArthur. It was as bad as any course in the U.S., yet it cost $100 to play on Saturdays. Doesn't matter. The golfers started lining up at two in the morning.

   1996, Sports Illustrated Editors, Golf, →ISBN

   Sometimes someone would take a wrench to a fire hydrant, jam a crate up to its nozzle, turning the whole of it into a fountain for us kids to splosh around and play in.

   2009, John Ridley, A Conversation with the Mann

   It's quite something that I'm standing here with the door open, and that I'm thinking what fun it would be to take a trimmer to that grass and sort my plants from the weeds. That's progress—after all, I haven't got my hands dirty in[…]

   2010 September 7, Rowan Coleman, The Home for Broken Hearts, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 334

   He recounted the story of a heretic who took a sword to a statue of Mary, which began to bleed. […]

   2016 March 23, Scott K. Taylor, A Linking of Heaven and Earth: […] , Routledge, →ISBN

   It turns one of the dickheads Nick took a baseball bat to is the nephew of a hick cop on the force out there.

   2017 May 8, Tamara Morgan, The World is a Stage, Tamara Morgan, →ISBN

2. To experience application of (some instrument or implement).

   I used to do field lexicography, but then I took an arrow to the knee on North Sentinel Island.

3. To suffer (an injury or detriment) to person or property.

   Twitter took a major blow to its reputation

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take.

   Let's take the presents to the community center.

   1 more example

   And this from the bloke who took a phone to dinner in case we broke down on the way from the bedrooms to the dining room.

   2012 February 17, Clare Revell, After the Fire, Pelican Ventures Book Group, →ISBN