take

   1. to steal

   OED gives a first use in this sense in 1200, since when it had been standard English. In modern use it may refer to being bribed:

    The judges who took were said to be carefully isolated. There were bagmen and code words. (Turow, 1999)

   2. to copulate with

   Usually of the male, in ancient or modern use:

    To take her in her heart's extremest hate. (Shakespeare, Richard HI)

    It didn't stop the waves of lust as he took her. (Allbeury, 1976)

   Rarely, although with rather more logic, the female takes the male:

    Chandra... had been the cause of his love affair... for she had taken him just to forget Chandra. (Masters, 1976)

   3. to kill

   The victims are animals, by culling or hunting:

    And many of the creatures she allowed to escape. 'You take him,' she would say. (Mailer, 1965, writing about shooting squirrels)

   4. to cause or allow to die

   When your deity says your time is up:

    I felt wretchedly old... and began to wonder, for the first time in my life, when it would please God to take me. (W. Collins, 1868)

   5. to conceive

   Used of domestic animals, as of cuttings or grafts of plants:

    Some mares won't take. (D. Francis, 1982)

   6. to overcome or master

   An omnibus usage which may describe any action from aggressively passing another vehicle on the highway to any kind of villainy:

    He had no doubts he could 'take' the apartment at Fontenoy House. He was, after all, one of the best cracksmen in London. (Forsyth, 1984)