take air

English

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

(obsolete, idiomatic) To be divulged; to be made public. [17th–19th c.]
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
  [T]his secret having taken air, the old Israelite had contrived a scheme to separate them for ever; and they being apprized of his intention, had found means to elope from his house […] .
- 1780, The Annual Register:
  The purchase proved fatal; the Jew's family soon died of the plague: the news took air, and the house was burnt, but the infection could not be restrained; it spread, and continued to rage with great violence […] .