Word.ws English Dictionary

took in

took in is the simple past of take in.

Meaning of take in

Verb

take in (third-person singular simple present takes in, present participle taking in, simple past took in, past participle taken in)

  1. (transitive) To receive.
    • The company took in more than forty million euros last year.
  2. (transitive) To receive and properly absorb or comprehend.
    • The news is a lot to take in right now.
  3. (transitive) To enjoy or appreciate.
    • I'm just going to sit on a bench and take in the scenery.
  4. (transitive) To allow a person or an animal to live in one's home.
    • take in a stray cat
  5. (transitive) To receive (goods) into one's home for the purpose of processing for a fee.
    • In hard times, some women would take in washing and others dressmaking repairs.
  6. (transitive) To shorten (a garment) or make it smaller.
    • Try taking the skirt in a little around the waist.
    Antonyms:
    let out, let down

See all 12 meanings of take in

Questions about took in

What is took in the simple past of?
Took in is the simple past of take in.

Words near took in in the dictionary

  1. took home
  2. took horse
  3. took hostage
  4. took huff
  5. took ill
  6. took in
  7. took in hand
  8. took into account
  9. took into consideration
  10. took issue to
  11. took it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took in (page history and authors); take in (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “took in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/took_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.