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Glite Dictionary
to take a Bex

to take a Bex

9.9
To swallow a small medicine powder to reduce pain and calm down
  • phrasal verb
  • Archaic
: tomar un Bex
  • Whenever I have a headache, I take a Bex and rest for a while.

Examples

  • She told him to take a Bex and calm down after his outburst.

  • After that long meeting, I need to take a Bex!

  • Back in the 1960s, many Australians would take a Bex for minor aches and pains.

  • You should take a Bex if you're feeling stressed.

  • Whenever I have a headache, I take a Bex to relieve the pain.

  • Back in the 1960s, many Australians would take a Bex to help with minor aches.

  • She suggested that he take a Bex and relax after a stressful day.

Synonyms

to chillax
vsto take a Bex
  • Slang
4 8.6

Calm down and relax after feeling stressed or excited

involves taking a medicinal dose or Australian phrase to tell someone to relax

How Relaxed

to chill out
  • Informal
138 4.9
to relax
∞ 1.0
to take a Bex
  • Archaic
9.9
to take a break
543 1.4

Surface Forms

take a Bex infinitive

Morphology

take + a + Bex

The verb 'take' clearly signals consuming or using something and 'a Bex' looks like a product name, so learners can infer a literal sense of taking a named item. However, identifying Bex specifically as an analgesic and the figurative extension ('calm down' / culturally specific usage) requires prior cultural/lexical knowledge of the brand, so the meaning is only partly predictable.

Etymology

The phrase take a Bex comes from an old Australian medicine called Bex that people mixed with water and took to help with pain or stress. Because taking a Bex helped people relax, telling someone to take a Bex came to mean 'calm down' or 'take it easy'.