take vows

English

Verb

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

1. (Christianity) To become an officially inducted member of a religious order, such as an order of priests, nuns, or monks.
   • 1903, Harold MacGrath, chapter 34, in The Grey Cloak:

     And this was the hour Brother Jacques had planned and waited for! For this moment he had donned the robes, isolated himself, taken vows, suffered physical tortures!

   • 1919, Willa Cather, Scandal:

     "Even painters ... try to make all women look like some wife or mistress. You are all the same; you never see our real faces. ... I'd rather take vows and veil my face for ever from such abominable eyes."

   • 2001 December 30, Michelle O'Donnell, “The Life Serene”, in New York Times, retrieved 26 November 2012:

     A cloister is the part of the monastery that only those who have taken vows may enter.

References

• “take vows”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.