to take one's own life
35
8.6
- phrasal verb
- NSFW
:
quitarse la vida
- Mrs. Christian chose to take her own life this afternoon, Mr. Welles.
Examples
-
When he came to his senses and saw what he had done, he took his own life.
Fiction book (2002) -
"Are you saying he took his own life?" she demanded.
Fiction book (1993) -
And it looks like he took his own life.
-
You want to take your own life?
-
Paul, why do you wanna take your own life?
-
My father lost his battle with depression three years ago and took his own life.
Blog text (32) -
Maybe grief will drive him to take his own life.
Fiction book (1997) -
He took his own life.
-
His parents say unpunished bullying at the school led him to take his own life.
-
Last February 27, Cox, according to authorities, took his own life by hanging.
Synonyms
232
6.2
To kill yourself on purpose
1
9.8
To stop something yourself, for example closing an account, making a device stop working, or ending your own life
1
8.7
To kill yourself because you feel you cannot go on
1
6.5
To end your own life on purpose
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to kill oneself intentionally' is directly derivable from the parts: 'take' (to cause loss or removal) plus 'one's own life' (the person's life), mirroring 'take someone's life' = 'kill someone'. This is a compositional, euphemistic phrasing found across many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would very likely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Take one's own life uses a simple image: to take means to remove and life is what you have. So, the phrase means 'to kill yourself' because it shows someone removing their own life.