Talk:take it easy

RFM discussion: September 2012–May 2017

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for moves, mergers and splits (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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take it easy

I think [[take it easy]] and [[have it easy]] should be respectively moved to [[take it]] and [[have it]] since they can both be used with other adjectives (or are they adjectives being used as adverbs?). For example: take it slow, have it bad, etc. --WikiTiki89 (talk) 13:22, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Two of the three senses at [[take it easy]] relates to the conventional use of the imperative, which conventional uses are idioms, as some idiom dictionaries show.

As to the other sense, there is nothing special about "it" in this case. Many nominals can occupy its slot: "I take this kind of request personally.", "He took her deciding to leave hard". I think we already have the right sense of take#Verb. I would replace the definition with {{&lit|take|easy}}. DCDuring TALK 14:30, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Ok, I can concede that sense #3 is idiomatic. But sense #2 is really just a particular use for sense #1. Also, "I'm gonna stay home and take it easy." and "I was criticized but did not take it personally." do not use the same sense of "take it". --WikiTiki89 (talk) 14:45, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

But it is conventionalized.

I can't find applicable definitions of take it at Collins or RHU, the only two credible OneLook dictionaries that cover it among the five references that have entries. Do you mean of take#Verb? I think they do. Something like "receive or accept". DCDuring TALK 15:08, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Since when do we do things exactly like other dictionaries? --WikiTiki89 (talk) 15:21, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

• Oppose moving take it easy. “take it easy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.. --Dan Polansky (talk) 07:42, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

have it easy

There are certainly fewer nominals that seem to fit the "it" slot, but "life" and various periods of time ("the rest of the day") do. If you allow for other adjectivals (eg, ready, available, pending, full, outstanding, interested, comparable[+complement], like[+complement], similar[+complement]), it doesn't seem very special at all. DCDuring TALK 14:50, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

If I say "He has it ready." without context, you will wonder what "it" is. If I say "He has it easy." or "He has it bad.", you unambiguously know that I am referring to his quality of life. It may seem that "it" simply refers to "life", but you can't say "He has life easy." It's the same sort of abstract "it" as in "It is raining." You can try say that "it" refers to the sky but that doesn't really work either. --WikiTiki89 (talk) 15:19, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

• Oppose moving have it easy. “have it easy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.. --Dan Polansky (talk) 07:42, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

archiving without moving, due to lack of consensus for a move and staleness. - -sche (discuss) 07:05, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

become less upset or angry

(spoken) used to tell someone to become less upset or angry
Just take it easy and tell us what happened
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/take-it-easy

--Backinstadiums (talk) 16:14, 21 May 2020 (UTC)