take vows

present singular third person takes vows · participle present taking vows · past took vows · participle past taken vows

1. ChristianityTo become an officially inducted member of a religious order, such as an order of priests, nuns, or monks.

   A cloister is the part of the monastery that only those who have taken vows may enter.

   2001 December 30, Michelle O'Donnell, “The Life Serene”, in New York Times, retrieved 26 Nov 2012

   2 more examples

   And this was the hour Brother Jacques had planned and waited for! For this moment he had donned the robes, isolated himself, taken vows, suffered physical tortures!

   1903, Harold MacGrath, chapter 34, in The Grey Cloak

   "Even painters ... try to make all women look like some wife or mistress. You are all the same; you never see our real faces. ... I'd rather take vows and veil my face for ever from such abominable eyes."

   1919, Willa Cather, Scandal