took the shilling

Verb

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

1. (UK, historical, intransitive) To enlist as a soldier in the British army or navy by accepting a shilling from a recruiting officer.
   • [O]ne fellow was jilted by his miſtreſs and took the ſhilling in deſpair; […]1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Mohun Appears for the Last Time in This History”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume III, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 135
2. (broadly, dated, intransitive) To enlist as a soldier of any military force; to join the armed forces.
3. (broadly, intransitive, generally) To be on the payroll of an organization; to work for an organization.
   • My earlier warnings, both in RAIL and in an article I wrote for The Times, have not fallen on deaf ears. There are many people (I suspect most) in the [rail] industry who recognise that telling people not to use their trains will cause lasting damage, but they are silenced publicly because they are...2020 June 17, Christian Wolmar, “The Strategy of ‘Don’t Use the Railways’ Must be Reversed …”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 44