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Glite Dictionary
to take to

to take to

107 3.8
To begin either to like someone or to do something regularly as a habit
  • phrasal verb
  • /teɪk tu/
translation icon : encariñarse con (persona/animal)
  • Some of the guys took to calling me Dead Eye.
  • take to calling

He, for whatever reason, just took to scrambling up those rocks.

Examples

  • Sally, she's taking to this writing thing like a duck to water.

    Isn't She Great (2000)

  • Keenan reflected about his mentee: He really took to this and is interested in pursuing a career in kinesiology.

    Academic text (2015)

  • I'm taking to this more than I thought I would.

    Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)

  • She never took to me.

    The Wolverine (2013)

  • Inspired by their writings, many teachers took to trying to discover answers inside themselves.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Since the late 1980s, farmers of all classes have taken to cotton cultivation.

    Academic text (2004)

  • I barely managed to lose weight between babies and took to wearing old jeans and extra-large shirts.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • I've never seen Andre take to someone the way he does to you.

  • In recent years, the number of senior citizens taking to the water has increased.

  • Charlotte, always the straight-A student, took to her Judaism class like a gefilte fish to water.

Synonyms

to take up
vsto take to
224 3.4

To begin a job, activity, or hobby

starts by developing liking and making it a regular habit
to fancy
vsto take to
  • UK
54 3.2

To want something, often for a short time

grows into liking and may become a regular habit
to go in for
vsto take to
17 4.0

To like something or to take part in it often

begins to like or makes a habit of doing something

How Fond

to love
∞ 1.0
to like
∞ 1.0
to warm to
8 4.9
to take to
107 3.8

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

take + to

The sense 'begin to like' or 'start doing something regularly' is related to an idea of adopting or taking on (a habit or liking), so there is a partial compositional link to 'take' + directional/targeting 'to'. However, the specific intransitive/experiential meaning and its distribution (e.g. take to someone / take to smoking) is idiomatic enough that a B1 learner who only knows the literal words would not reliably predict it without exposure. Therefore it is best classified as partially transparent.

Etymology

The phrasal verb take to may come from the image of someone walking toward a new thing: you take a step to a hobby or place and then keep going back. So it means 'begin to like' or 'start doing something regularly'.