take care of

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take care of (third-person singular simple present takes care of, present participle taking care of, simple past took care of, past participle taken care of)

1. (transitive) To look after, to provide care for.

   My elderly mother needs to be taken care of.

2. (transitive) To deal with, handle.

   Can somebody take care of the customers while I clean this mess?

   • 2023 February 4, Katie Rogers, quoting Joe Biden, “Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a … Chinese Spy Balloon?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     People had time to think up some questions, including reporters who shouted “Are you going to shoot down the balloon?” at President Biden shortly before the dirigible came down. “We’re going to take care of it,” the president told reporters in Syracuse, N.Y., where he was visiting family.

3. (transitive, slang, euphemistic) To kill.

   In the motion picture ‘The Godfather’, gangster Virgil Sollozzo took care of Luca Brasi by having him strangled.

• (look after): care for, nurse
• (handle): attend to
• (kill (slang)): bump off, knock off, wax

• take care of business
• take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves
• take care of yourself