to take over
862
3.1
- phrasal verb
- /ˈteɪk ˈoʊvər/
:
hacerse cargo de
- When Sarah is unavailable, I will take over her duties to ensure everything runs smoothly.
- take over the role
- take over security
- take over from his father
Tech seems to be taking over the youth in Africa.
- Tech seems to be taking over the youth in Africa.
- Who, you know, took over seats that other people lost.
- Yes, child, we are taking over the world now.
- You're you're, you're taking over the the fields of the poor peasants.
- You know what, when the monster took over, it wasn't for bad things.
- thoughts that can take over your mind
- They they take over our our lives.
- We're going to take over this little corner the next two hours.
- So how do they take over from us?
- Then numerical methods, graphical methods take over in more complicated problems.
Examples
-
You must take over the supervision of this election, Aldo.
-
Are you gonna take over the farm one day?
-
It's like some people like to take over your ideas.
-
So women came in and took over a lot of those jobs.
-
Yes, child, we are taking over the world now.
-
So now I think we might be taking over this area.
-
We could take over an entire town.
-
Help is hardly the word for it: she took over the practical side of his life.
Academic text (1999) -
You don't want them taking over the levers of power.
-
Xi Jinping, the heir apparent, is set to take over at the next party congress in 2012.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
227
3.5
Start to have power and make decisions about something
129
4.4
To take someone's job or position after they leave
98
3.5
Start to control a group or situation and lead others
93
3.7
Begin to take a role or duty
79
3.2
To start guiding a group or activity and make the main decisions
23
4.7
To drive a car or have control of a situation
12
4.4
To lead an organization, group, or project
10
3.1
Accept a job, responsibility, or part in a play
1
7.3
To take on an important role as a leader
1
7.4
To take on responsibility as the next leader
Start managing something after the previous person leaves
To start managing a task or group after someone else managed it
Antonyms
How Much Control
Surface Forms
Morphology
take + over
The sense 'to assume responsibility or control' is directly compositional from 'take' (to seize/assume) combined with 'over' (indicating control, authority, or transfer), so the overall meaning is predictable from the parts. This pattern (take + over → assume control/responsibility) is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Take over comes from a simple picture: one person takes a job or task and puts their hands over it, stepping in to do the work themselves. So it now means 'to begin to have control or responsibility'.