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Glite Dictionary
🤝 To assume control 🏢 To acquire business 💸 To accept obligations
to take over

to take over

42 3.7
Agree to pay another person's debts or bills
  • phrasal verb
  • /teɪk ˈoʊvər/
translation icon : hacerse cargo de
  • Some operations have been taken over by foreign companies that have acquired a controlling interest.
  • take over the debts

Subject to the easiest way to explain what this is, is basically just taking over their loan.

Examples

  • Kate and I took over the orphanage and it was a dream come true.

    Norbit (2007)

  • For example, as soon as the children were in school, I took over the beauty shop run.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I had to take over the family business.

    The Phantom (1996)

  • Or so his wife believed until the day he took over as sheriff of this wild, frozen county.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • We want to give you eighty cents on the dollar to take over your contract.

    WWJD II: The Woodcarver (2012)

  • They agreed to take over the loan payments for their neighbor when she lost her job.

  • The company is looking to take over the struggling restaurant chain to help it recover.

  • In a surprising move, the investors decided to take over the debts of the failing startup.

Synonyms

to bear
vsto take over
876 3.9

To accept something difficult or unpleasant

is about formally assuming responsibility for someone else's debts instead of merely enduring costs
to take on
vsto take over
405 2.8

To agree to do a job or task

focuses specifically on assuming others' financial debts and payments rather than any task
to take charge
vsto take over
98 3.5

Start to control a group or situation and lead others

is about assuming another's financial obligations rather than leading people
to accept
vsto take over
79 2.5

To agree to pay someone else's bills or debts

is the act of assuming another's debts rather than only agreeing
to absorb
vsto take over
60 4.9

To pay a cost that someone else would have to pay

is about formally assuming responsibility for others' debts rather than simply covering costs
to assume
vsto take over
  • Specialized
36 3.7

Agree to pay someone else's debts or costs

is limited to responsibility for debts and payments rather than full ownership

Antonyms

to abandon
773 3.1

Leave someone or something behind permanently and without care

to disclaim
  • Formal
5 7.3

Say officially that you do not have a right, responsibility or part in something

How Responsible

to cover
∞ 1.9
to take over
42 3.7
to assume
  • Specialized
36 3.7
to take on
405 2.8

Surface Forms

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

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 can be pictured as someone taking a heavy bag of bills and lifting it over their shoulder to show they will pay it. So it also means 'to assume responsibility for the debts or payments of another'.