Taker

Also 4–6 Sc. takar (5 -are, 6 taikar, takkar); 6 takere, tacker. [f. TAKE v. + -ER¹.] One who or that which takes.

  1.  One who takes, in various senses of the verb.

1486.  Act 3 Hen. VII., c. 2. Where Wymmen … been oft tymes taken by mysdoers [etc.] and after maried to such mysdoers … Such mysdoers, takers, and procurators to the same [etc.].

1514.  in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1900), XV. 450. The payne sessed as well to the Taker as to the gever.

1552.  Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 11. Takaris of ouir mekil mail or farme, to the herschipe of the tenentis.

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1676), 203. We read of Alcibiades, that he was a great taker, and would be corrupted with Money.

1602.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., I. Wks. 1856, I. 13. A great tobacco taker too.

1611.  Bible, Isa. xxiv. 2. And it shall be … as with the taker of vsurie, so with the giuer of vsurie to him.

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 66. The Turkes are also incredible takers of Opium.

1677.  G. Fox, Jrnl. (1694), 445. It is a despising, backbiting, and a secret-whispering Spirit, and a Sower of Dissension, and a taker of advantage of all prejudiced Spirits, that are disobedient to their first Principle and Love of Truth.

1737.  Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit. (ed. 33), II. 93. Layers and takers of paper on and from the rolling-presses.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 101. The best taker to pieces of words of this sort.

1835.  Law Times, 7 Feb., 266/1. The taker of a railway ticket must know what is on the face of it.

1918.  Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers, 16 Autumn Movement, 2. The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

  2.  spec. † a. One who takes another into his protection, etc.: cf. TAKE v. 14. Obs.

a. 1325.  Prose Psalter, xlv[i]. 7. Þe Lord of vertuz ys wyþ vs; our taker [Vulg. susceptor] ys God of Jacob. Ibid., liii[i]. 4. Our Lord is taker of my soule.

  b.  One who captures or seizes; a captor, seizer, catcher, apprehender: cf. TAKE v. 2.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxi. (Eugenia) 512. [A lynx] Quhen hir qwhelpis are tan hir fra, To chas þe takaris, þaim to sla.

1454.  Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 281. Halfe of that ransom to the takerys, and the othir halfe to the courte.

c. 1511.  1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd. 35/1. They be good takers of fysshe.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonn., cxxix. 5.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xv. (1623), 785. The King … had promised a thousand marks to his taker.

c. 1650.  Denham, Old Age, 196. Takers of cities, conquerors in war.

1807.  G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. III. iv. 451. A searcher, and taker of thieves, and limmers.

1884.  I. Bligh, in Lillywhite’s Cricket Ann., 7. Principal takers of wickets.

  † c.  An officer who took or exacted supplies of necessaries for the sovereign: = PURVEYOR 3. Obs.

1444.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 115/1. That no man of this Roialme have Takers but oonlye the Kyng and the Quene.

1519.  Interl. Four Elements, in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 24. As for capons ye can get none, The king’s taker took up each one.

1596.  Nashe, Saffron Walden, 62. Let all the droppings of my pen bee seazed vpon by the Queenes Takers for Tarre to dresse ships with.

1619.  Dalton, Country Just., xliv. (1630), 103. Offences of Purveyors, Takers,… or other ministers for the King’s Majestie.

  d.  One who takes something from another by force or wrongfully; a robber, thief, plunderer, pilferer; hence, a literary plunderer, a plagiarist. Obs. or merged in the general sense.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xvii. 43. Grit men for taking and oppressioun Ar sett full famous at the Sessioun, And peur takaris ar hangit hie.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., Pref. As euell as a violent taker or (if you will) a robber.

1609.  Rowlands, Dr. Merrie-man, 3. Sirrah sayes one, stand, and your Purse deliuer; I am a taker, thou must be a giuer.

1644.  D. Hume, Hist. Ho. Douglas, 74. Hee was chiefly incensed against the taker of it, as having done him a great indignitie.

1687.  M. Clifford, Notes Dryden, ii. 6. Pray hear what Famianus Strada says of such Takers as Mr. Dryden.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxix. Robin Hood’s dead and gwone, but there be takers yet in the vale of Bever.

  e.  (a) One who takes possession, esp. of land: often with first or next.

1766.  Blackstone, Comm., II. i. 9. Property, both in lands and moveables, being thus originally acquired by the first taker,… it remains in him, by the principles of universal law, till such time as he does some other act which shews an intention to abandon it. Ibid., xviii. 275. The next taker is entitled to enter regularly.

1884.  Sir J. W. Chitty, in Law Rep., 26 Chanc. Div. 548. The absolute interest which the sixth Earl, as first taker, acquired.

  (b)  One who takes a lease of a farm, a mine, etc.; a lessee or tenant.

1778.  Pryce, Min. Cornub., 183. When the adventurers thus set a Mine to farm, they oblige the Taker or Tributor to keep the Mine in good repair.

1805.  Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., I. 535. The takers grant bill with a surety for the rent.

  (c)  In Derbyshire Lead Mines, A miner who takes possession of a mere, after the ‘founder’ has taken his mere (cf. taker-mere in 4b).

1601.  High Peak Art., in Mander, Derbysh. Min. Gloss. (1824), 130. Where any Miner doth take and possess any fresh ground…, and does work the same to the knowledge of any other, who before such takers aforesaid were or pretended to be possessed of the same ground as taker of a Forefield for an old founder.

1747.  Hooson, Miner’s Dict., Taker [is] He that takes a Mear or Mears, from him that is the Founder; several Men may take one after another, if they think it may be worth their while, and then the Mears so taken go by some Name or other, as A’s Taker Mear, or B’s Taker Mear, or their second or third Taker Mear, to distinguish them from the Founders, and one Taker from another.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Next taker, among miners, is he that hath the next meer in possession.

  f.  One who accepts a bet.

1810.  Sporting Mag., XXXV. 245. Two to one were offered … but there were no takers.

1829.  Sporting Mag., XXV. (N.S.), 359/2. Cressida was stationary, the takers of odds being exceedingly shy, and not an offer was accepted.

1847.  W. T. Porter, A Quarter Race in Kentucky, 120. ’Twas known he never bet liberally, unless he ‘had a sure thing,’ so that the betting soon began to lag, and the old man had the call, but no takers.

1873.  Standard, 30 Sept. The betting gradually veered round with even money offered on W. Beckwith with no takers.

  g.  Foreign taker: a former officer of the City of London appointed to supervise some of the markets held in the open streets and to attend to their clearing up. Obs. exc. Hist.

c. 1690.  in Bohun, Privil. Lond. (1723), 136. Richard Robinson the present Foreign taker and Yeoman of Newgate Market.

1720.  Strype, Stow’s Surv., Lond., II. 398. Formerly, before the great Fire … there were these Officers, viz. a Serjeant and Yeoman of the Channel, and Yeoman of Newgate Market, and Foreign Taker, whose Office was to sweep and make clean the said Streets, where the Market People resorted, and to carry away the Soil thereof, and to furnish the Market People with Boards and such like Accommodations…. But since Markets are removed out of the Streets … these Officers retain only the Names.

  † 3.  Applied to the nippers or claws of a scorpion, etc. Obs.

1608.  Topsell, Serpents (1658), 752. A flamant Scorpion … hath tongs and takers very solid and strong, like the Gramnel or Crevish.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. 199/1.

  4.  Comb. a. With adverbs, forming compound agent-nouns corresponding to adverbial combinations of the verb (see TAKE v. 76–90), as taker-away, -down, -out, etc.: taker-in, one who takes in, in various senses (see TAKE v. 82); also, an apparatus which takes in or receives something, e.g., the cotton in a carding-machine (quot. 1879); taker-off, one who takes off, in various senses (see TAKE v. 83); also, an apparatus for taking something off, in a machine (cf. TAKE-OFF, B. 2); taker-up, one who or that which takes up, in various senses (see TAKE v. 90); spec. † (a) one who takes another under his charge or protection, a patron, guardian (obs.); † (b) one who ‘raises’ the psalm in church, a precentor (Sc. obs.); † (c) a member of a gang of swindlers: see quot. 1591² (obs.); (d) a purchaser or purveyor of commodities; (e) a receiver of money paid, as rent, etc.; one who takes possession of an estate; (g) a laborer who gathers the grass just mown; (h) something that occupies time, space, etc.

a. 1804.  W. Gilpin, Serm., II. xxxvii. (R.). God … the giver, and *taker away of all earthly things.

1848.  Mrs. Gaskell, M. Barton, xxiii. The taker-away of life.

1901.  Mary Kingsley, W. African Studies (ed. 2), xx. 405. But great as Nzambi is, still living and acting as she is to-day, away in the country of the Fjort, she is but the giver, the teacher, the taker away of things; she is not the Creator.

1836.  T. Hook, G. Gurney, I. 105. A practised *taker-in of credulous men.

1839.  C. Brontë, in Mrs. Gaskell, Life, viii. (1857), 127. A straw-bonnet maker, or a taker-in of plain work.

1879.  T. Robertson, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 273/2. Apart from the slight degree of combing … the only duty required of the ‘taker-in’ is indicated in its name.

1902.  Cutcliffe Hyne, Thompson’s Progr., 70. ‘Who measured the pieces?’ ‘The taker-in.’

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 380. K is the doffer or *taker-off, having affixed to it the steel comb called the doffing-plate.

1830.  G. Colman, Random Rec., Dr. Graham. A spurious kind of imitation which may account for the number of takers-off at secondhand.

1888.  J. Southward, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 706/1. The [printed] sheets are removed singly by an attendant called a taker-off, or by a mechanical automatic arrangement called a flyer.

1883.  S. C. Hall, Retrospect, I. 255. A taker-off of peculiarities, he never sought to make a mock of deformity.

1388.  Wyclif, Ps. xli[i]. 10 [9]. Y schal seie to God: Thou art my *takere vp [Vulg. susceptor].

1550.  Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI., c. 16 § 10. Such childe to be vsed … to what labor … soeuer the said taker vp or M^r or Maistres shall appointe him.

1578.  in Spottiswood, Hist. Ch. Scot., VI. (1677), 297. Takers up of Psalms, and other Officers of the Church.

1591.  Percivall, Sp. Dict., Recogedor, a gatherer, a taker vp, collector, receptor.

1591.  Greene, Disc. Coosnage (1859), 8. Foure persons were required to performe their coosning commodity. The Taker up, the Verser, the Barnard, and the Butter…. The Taker up seemeth a skilful man in al things, who hath by long travail learned … to insinuate himselfe into a man’s acquaintance.

1603.  Eng. Mourn. Garm., in Select. fr. Harl. Misc. (1793), 205. One of her own servants, a taker-up of provision.

1620.  E. Blount, Horæ Subs., 120. It is … a taker vp of time that may be better disposed.

1622.  Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 390. The Taker vp of the money at London, payeth for twelue pence the said marke of 13¹/₃ pence, at two or three moneths Time in Scotland.

a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. III., Wks. (1711), 50. Taker up of the rents of that earldom.

1715.  Maryland Laws, vi. (1723), 20. The said Commissioners … shall … invest the Taker up, and Builder … with an Estate of Inheritance, in the said Lot.

1848.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., IX. II. 501. The takers-up follow the mower.

  b.  attrib. Taker-mere, in Derbysh. Lead-mines, a ‘mere’ or portion of ground allotted to a ‘taker’ (2 e [c]; cf. founder-meer s.v. FOUNDER sb.⁵ 3).

1653.  Manlove, Lead Mines, 46. But yet a difference may be taken clear, Betwixt a founder, and a taker meer.

1747.  [see 2 e (c) above].

1851.  Tapping, Gloss. to Manlove, s.v. Meer, A taker meer was the meer formerly allotted by custom to any person who chose to have one set out to him after those of the founder and farmer had been allotted.