Thread: phrasal verb
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Old 05-08-2005, 08:27 PM   #2 (permalink)
MikeL
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As with many, if not most, phrasal verbs, there is more than one meaning, and without the context it is impossible to translate it. The two most common contexts are:

1 with a person as the complement: to take someone out (to dinner, to a movie...)
2 with a thing as the complement: to take something out = remove
e.g. a surgeon takes out a diseased appendix

In recent years a new meaning has developed, probably an Americanism originally. The context is either military, in which the complement is usually a thing or place, e.g. an enemy position, and with the meaning "destroy", or to do with crime, particularly organized crime, where the complement is a person, and the meaning is "kill".

Would that make sense in the context in which you heard it?
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