to take orders
81
3.2
- phrasal verb
- /teɪk ˈɔrdərz/
:
acatar órdenes
- You and your little pal will report directly to me and take orders only from me.
It's not in our makeup to take orders about how we live.
- It's not in our makeup to take orders about how we live.
- That's how we are more agreeable or people that are more willing to take orders, right?
- And the gods are like, well, who's going to be in charge and who's going to take orders?
- It says are you taking over or are you taking orders?
- But the thummos is, is here 'cause it guards the passageway and it can take the orders from the top part.
- I don't want to take orders from those jerks over there that is also willing about our personality.
Examples
-
Nash, look, you don't have to take orders from me anymore, but there's something you need to see.
-
The newly appointed civilian official would be "wholly independent of Col. Oglethorpe" and take orders instead from the Trustees.
Academic text (2011) -
And you have to be ready to stand ready to take orders because people come to you, right?
-
It's not in our makeup to take orders about how we live.
-
I'm not taking orders from you.
-
From that moment on, it became a delight to take orders from Mr. Smith.
Fiction book (1993) -
I've spent my life taking orders, now it's my turn to decide.
-
Now they all take orders from Hilda.
-
Zhuge Zhengwo's Divine Constabulary takes orders directly from the Crown.
-
As a junior officer, you must be prepared to take orders from your superiors during exercises.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To act according to rules, advice, or beliefs
411
1.0
Do what someone in charge tells you or follow a rule
332
3.8
Do what a rule or person asks
79
3.9
To follow rules or instructions
60
2.9
To do what a person in charge tells you without asking questions
Antonyms
How Obedient
411
1.0
81
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to listen to and record customers' requests' is directly derivable from combining 'take' (to receive/accept) with 'order' (a customer's request). The construction 'take + order' follows a common, compositional English pattern (receive an order) and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will understand it.
Etymology
Take orders comes from the army image of a soldier receiving commands; to take someone's orders was to hear the officer and do what they said. So it means 'to receive and be expected to follow directions'.