• IPA: /ˈteɪkɪŋ/

taking

1. Alluring; attractive.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-History of Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the Year M.DC.XLVIII, London: John Williams, “The Tenth Century,” p. 128,

     […] a Proteus-Devil appeared unto him, changing into Shapes, but fixing himself at last into the form of a Fair Woman. Strange, that Satan (so subtil in making his Temptations most taking) should preferre this form […]

   • 1793, Charles Dibdin, The Younger Brother, London, for the author, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 263,

     His speech from the hustings was very original, and therefore very taking.

   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Book 3, Chapter 1,

     “Yes, Paris must be a taking place,” said Humphrey. “Grand shop-winders, trumpets, and drums; and here be we out of doors in all winds and weathers—”

2. (obsolete) Infectious; contagious.
   • circa 1605 William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 4,

     All the stor’d vengeances of heaven fall

     On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,

     You taking airs, with lameness!

   • 1647, John Fletcher (playwright) and Philip Massinger, The False One, Act IV, Scene 3,

     Come not near me,

     For I am yet too taking for your company.

taking

1. The act by which something is taken.
   • 1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, Chapter 27,p. 290,

     At the taking of the stockade he had distinguished himself greatly by the methodical ferocity of his fighting.

2. (uncountable) A seizure of someone's goods or possessions.
3. (uncountable) A state of mental distress, resulting in excited or erratic behavior (in the expression in a taking).
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, Chapter 30,

     “And, dear miss, you won’t harry me and storm at me, will you? because you seem to swell so tall as a lion then, and it frightens me! Do you know, I fancy you would be a match for any man when you are in one o’ your takings.”

   • 1970, Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave, New York: Fawcett Crest, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 26,

     “[...] there’ll be a beating for someone, by my reckoning, if he’s not there by the time the King’s looking round for him. He’s been in a rare taking since the outriders came in, that I can tell you.”

4. (in the plural) Cash or money received (by a shop or other business, for example).

   Synonyms: income, receipts

   Fred was concerned because the takings from his sweetshop had fallen again for the third week.

   Count the shop's takings.

   • 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, London: The Hogarth Press, 1931, Chapter 2, p. 60,

     [...] the woman who keeps the greengrocer’s shop was adding up the day’s takings with her hands in red mittens.

   • 1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Chapter 12, pp. 554-555,

     The child was not returned to the mother. [...] strangers giving him suck found it easier to display the utter despair in their faces that made for successful begging, whereas if [the mother] had had the pleasure of clasping her little son to her bosom all day, it would have been impossible to keep a spark of joy, however tiny, out of her eyes, which would have adversely affected the takings.

• German: Nahme, Einnahme, Übernahme

• German: Inbesitznahme, Ergreifung

• German: geistiger Ausnahmezustand, erratische Verfassung, Anfall

• German: Einnahmen

1. present participle of take#English|take
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗, page 16 ↗:

     Athelstan Arundel walked home […], foaming and raging. […] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.