ˈtake-away, n. and a.
Also Take-away, takeaway.
[f. vbl. phr. to take away: see take v. 80.]
A. n.
1. U.S. (See quot.) rare.
| 1931 Amer. Speech VII. 52 The train that takes the logs to the mill is the ‘takeaway’. |
2. Golf. The initial movement of the club at the beginning of a backswing.
| 1961 [see lightning-quick s.v. lightning 3 c]. 1976 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 21 Nov. 39/5 Jack Nicklaus..gives his advice today on another part of a good golf swing—the take-away. |
3. A shop which sells take-away food (see sense 1 of the adj. below).
| 1970 Cape Times 28 Oct. 18/1 (Advt.), Are you interested in a take-away..or supermarket? 1974 Times 7 Oct. 8/6 There is just as likely to be a chop suey bar or a chippy or a take-away in..Bognor Regis..as in any big city. 1976 J. Fraser Who steals my Name? xi. 134 [He] drove to the Chinese Take-Away on the outskirts. 1981 M. Hardwick Chinese Detective xiv. 134 Proprietor of..a small string of burger eateries and takeaways. |
B. adj.
1. That may be taken away; spec. designating cooked food sold to be eaten away from the premises of sale.
| 1964 Punch 15 Apr. 572/3 Posh Nosh..was serving take-away venisonburgers. 1970 Final Exam. Hons. Eng. Lang. & Lit. (Univ. Newcastle upon Tyne) 1 (heading) Take-away paper. 1971 Guardian 27 Mar. 11/1 We sent out to the Chinese restaurant for a Chinese take⁓away curry. 1974 Times 7 Oct. 8/5 British people buy their take-away meals with convenient regularity. 1975 Times 18 Aug. 2/4 Second-class travellers will be able to buy a full meal on a take-away tray which will not slip off the tables in their saloons. 1976 Nature 18 Mar. 213/2 The takeaway message of the Dunbars' monograph is that superficially similar social systems may be the product of different behavioural arrangements. 1982 London Rev. Bks. IV. xxiv. 3/2 As a takeaway sample of what he had in mind, Alvarez contrasted the horses of Larkin's poem ‘At Grass’..with the ‘urgent’ horses of Ted Hughes's ‘A Dream of Horses’. |
2. Of, pertaining to, or characterized by the selling of cooked food to be taken away.
| 1971 Guardian 18 June 11/5 Every take-away pieshop and baker sell a Cornish pasty. 1973 Times 3 Feb. 13/5 Leslie's also do a take-away service. 1977 N.Z. Herald 5 Jan. 2–15/8 (Advt.), Takeaway bar. 1978 Cornish Guardian 27 Apr. 14/4 (Advt.), Lucrative beach café..good take-away business, ice cream servery. 1981 B. Knox Killing in Antiques vii. 157 [They] made an expedition..to the nearest Chinese take-away restaurant and brought back enough food. |
______________________________
▸ colloq. (chiefly Brit.). A take-away meal. Cf. take-out adj. and n. Additions.
| 1976 Times 8 Dec. 16/7, I think the great British public are sensible enough to turn to Chinese takeaways and Indian pilaffs and spaghetti for aesthetically satisfying meals at prices they can afford. 1982 L. Cody Bad Company i. 11 It would have to be a ham and mushroom omelette or an Indian takeaway. 1990 R. Rendell Going Wrong vi. 66 He hadn't made a fortune in order to sit in his house eating takeaways and watching videos. 2005 Bliss July 34/1, I love takeaways but I guilt-trip afterwards so I've had to get a trainer to kick my butt into shape! |