The Collaborative International Dictionary
Betake \Be*take"\, v. t. [imp. Betook; p. p. Betaken; p. pr. & vb. n. Betaking.] [Pref. be- + take.]
To take or seize. [Obs.]
--Spenser.-
To have recourse to; to apply; to resort; to go; -- with a reflexive pronoun.
They betook themselves to treaty and submission.
--Burke.The rest, in imitation, to like arms Betook them.
--Milton.Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?
--Milton. To commend or intrust to; to commit to. [Obs.]
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of betake English)
Usage examples of "betaking".
Jean Valjean donned his uniform of a national guard with the vague inward feeling of a man who is betaking himself to shelter.
With new leather belts and their revolvers at their sides, they were betaking themselves to the railway which was to carry them to the point of concentration.
On leaving home on the morning of the fourth day of the mobilization Desnoyers, instead of betaking himself to the centre of the city, went in the opposite direction toward the rue de la Pompe.
Again betaking myself to my work, and toiling without cessation, on the 23rd of August I saw it finished.
Immediately after dinner, he availed himself of his knowledge, and, betaking himself to a remote part of the town, set out in a post-chaise for Luneville, while our hero was meditating his own escape.
At the end of December, his health growing steadily worse, he conceived the project of a voyage to Madeira, and quitted Keswick with the intention, after paying a short visit to the Wordsworths, of betaking himself to London to make preparations.