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Glite Dictionary
to take someone for

to take someone for

129 5.5
To think someone is a certain type of person, often wrongly
  • phrasal verb
  • /teɪk ˈsʌmˌwʌn fɔr/
: tomar a alguien por
  • If people take me for a constable I'll have a hard time finding Clients.

Examples

  • What do you take me for, Some kind of a cupcake?

    Gable and Lombard (1976)

  • Practically or morally, I'm not the man you take me for.

    Doctor Zhivago (1965)

  • But I doubt, Ms. Reed, that anyone would take you for a fool.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Oh, uh, I took it for granted, J.J., that you heard about it around town.

    Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

  • What kind of person do you take me for?

  • Don't take someone for a fool just because they are quiet.

  • If you take him for a serious competitor, you're mistaken.

Synonyms

to take to be
vsto take someone for
20 3.9

Think someone or something is a certain thing

assume a person's type often proving to be wrong
to misrecognize
vsto take someone for
  • US
8.1

Mistake a person or object for a different one

assume a person's type rather than wrongly identify them

How Certain

to know
∞ 1.0
to make sure
∞ 1.1
to take someone for
129 5.5

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

take + someone + for

The sense 'to believe or assume someone is a particular kind of person' follows directly from combining 'take' (interpret/consider) with the preposition 'for' functioning as 'as/being'. This verb+preposition composition is a commonplace, compositional pattern (cf. Spanish tomar por, French prendre pour), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Take someone for uses a simple image of take + for: imagine you take a person and put a label on them, treating them 'for' a role, like thinking a quiet person is shy. So it means 'to believe someone is a particular type of person', often by mistake.