Definition

1. Verb:
   • To accept responsibility for someone or something; to assume control or care: The phrase "take in charge" means to formally or willingly accept the duty of managing, supervising, or being responsible for a person, task, or situation.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • The new manager will take in charge of the department starting next Monday.
  • After the accident, a senior officer took the investigation in charge.
  • She agreed to take the orphaned children in charge until a permanent home was found.

Advanced Usage

• "to take someone/something in charge": This construction explicitly states what or who is being accepted as a responsibility.
  • The charity took the stray animals in charge.
• The phrase often implies a formal or official assumption of responsibility, especially in institutional, legal, or organizational contexts.

Variants and Related Words

• Take charge (of) (phrasal verb): To assume control, command, or responsibility. This is a more common variant.
  • When the team leader fell ill, she had to take charge of the project.
• Charge (noun): Responsibility, care, or control.
  • She was given charge of the new interns.

Synonyms

• Assume responsibility for: To take on a duty or obligation.
• Take over: To begin to control or be responsible for something.
• Undertake: To commit oneself to and begin (a task or responsibility).

Related Phrases

• Take under one's wing: To take someone into one's care and protection.
  • The experienced artist took the young prodigy under her wing.
• Be in charge of: To have responsibility for or control over.
  • Who is in charge of the budget?

Notes on Usage

• The phrase "take in charge" is less frequent in everyday modern English than the simpler "take charge of." It is often found in more formal or dated texts.
• It is a transitive verb phrase and requires a direct object (what is being taken in charge).

Verb

1. accept as a charge