Meaning of take water | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To travel in a vessel on a body of water; to embark on a ship.
   archaic, historical
2. As a person or animal, to go into a body of water and start swimming.
3. Of a vessel, to admit water through a leak or port or similar; to take in water.
4. To run away; to back down.
   US, colloquial
5. To top up the water tanks.

Examples

“I concealed my amour, as well as the effects of it, from his knowledge, and frequently took water from the Bridge, that my motions might not be discovered.”

“It had taken Water, and the Powder was cak'd as hard as a Stone.”

“The engines took water at Dingwall, the junction for the cross-country line to Kyle of Lochalsh, and again at Tain, 44 miles from Inverness.”

“As the engine took water, there was time to think of the curious turn of events that brought the North British (in the thin disguise of "Border Counties Railway") over the border, down the North Tyne to Hexham, and eastward from Reedsmouth by the Wansbeck Valley line to Morpeth (and Rothbury), though some of the emptiest parts of one of the emptiest counties of England.”

CEFR level