To take a liking.
1850. He had ‘taken a shine’ to the daughter of a staid old deacon, who used frequently to invite him to dinner.—Knick. Mag., xxxv. 273 (March).
1853. All the girls take such a shine to Ellick, that he don’t ever have to ask them anything himself.—‘Turnover: a Tale of New Hampshire,’ p. 37 (Boston).
1862. I ’ve tuk a middlin’ kind er shine to you, and I don’t want to see yer neck broke, long er me.—Theodore Winthrop, ‘John Brent,’ p. 17 (N.Y., 1876).
1888. A girl I liked (indeed, I had taken quite a shine to her).—Mrs. Custer, ‘Tenting on the Plains,’ p. 293.
