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Glite Dictionary
↩️ To return 🧠 To remind 💞 To resume relationship 🎁 To regain possession 🙊 To admit wrong
to take back

to take back

676 2.1
Return someone or something to the place they came from
  • phrasal verb
  • /teɪk bæk/
translation icon : llevar de vuelta
  • But you, you take those back to the store now.
  • take back home

I'm going to take the car back to our house and get our dogs.

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Examples

  • Boo, we have to take all that stuff back home today.

  • I'm going to take the car back to our house and get our dogs.

    JennaMarbles

  • Can you take this drink back?

    Broken City (2013)

  • You get your uncle to take you back home for a visit, you hear?

    Fiction book (1990)

  • We need to take him back to the lab and do more tests.

    RoboCop (2014)

  • You take Dinah back to the clock tower.

    Sparks! (2018)

  • Satisfied, she asked the confused driver to take her back to the medical examiner's office.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The concepts and skills learned were taken back to the home campuses and implemented immediately.

    Academic text (1997)

  • A rather stern nurse in metal-framed glasses waits to take the child back to the nursery.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Can you take back this drink to the bar?

Synonyms

to return
vsto take back
∞ 1.0

Give something back to its owner or the place it came from

is narrower, meaning movement to the place where they started
to give back
vsto take back
684 1.0

Return something to the person who owns it after you use or borrow it

is mainly about taking someone or something to their start place
to put back
vsto take back
449 1.0

Return something to the place where it was before

is about moving people or things to their starting place
to bring back
vsto take back
436 1.7

Return someone or something to the place they came from

is focused on returning people or things to where they began
to restore
vsto take back
313 3.4

Return someone to their family or a thing to its owner

focuses specifically on moving people or things to their origin
to regain
vsto take back
275 3.3

To get something back after losing it

emphasizes movement to the original place rather than regaining control
to send back
vsto take back
123 1.5

To return something to the person or place it came from

is about bringing people or things back to their origin
to reinstate
vsto take back
110 5.8

To return a person or thing to a previous position like a job

involves physical movement to the place where they originally came from
to reclaim
vsto take back
77 4.1

To get back something you lost or gave away

concerns the physical return of people or things to their start place
to retake
vsto take back
31 4.6

To take back control of a place after it was lost

is about returning people or things to the place where they started
to restitute
vsto take back
  • Specialized
1 8.8

Give back something lost or stolen to its owner

is chiefly physical movement to the place where they began

Antonyms

to displace
140 5.5

To make a person leave their usual place or job

to send away
43 3.0

Make someone leave a job or group because of a problem

How Direct

to bring back
436 1.7
to take back
676 2.1
to send back
123 1.5

Surface Forms

take back infinitive
taking back present participle
takes back third person singular
took back past
taken back past participle

Morphology

take + back

The meaning 'to regain possession' is directly derivable from combining 'take' (to get/receive) with 'back' (to a previous place/state): taking something back implies moving it back to its prior owner or state. This motion/state-restoration pattern with 'back' is common in English and other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would typically infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

Take back comes from the simple idea of carrying someone or something to the place they came from: you take a person or item back to the school or house, so it means 'to return'.