BETA'KE, verb transitive preterit tense betook; participle passive betaken. [be and take.]

1. To take to; to have recourse to; to apply; to resort; with the reciprocal pronoun; as, to betake ourselves to arms, or to action. It generally implies a motion towards an object, as to betake ourselves to a shade grove; or an application of the mind or faculties, corresponding with such motion, as to betake ourselves to study or to vice.

2. Formerly, to take or seize.