Literary notes about Partake (AI summary)
The word "partake" is employed in literature in a variety of ways that blend the literal with the figurative. It is often used to describe the act of sharing or consuming tangible items, such as meals or sacred elements—consider the dismissal of a congregation to partake of the sacrament [1] or a modest repast enjoyed at a hotel [2]. Yet its meaning extends beyond the physical: it can convey an abstract participation in emotions, ideas, or states of being, as when one is invited to partake in the sufferings of Christ [3] or when the very landscape seems to partake of a sublime beauty [4]. In this way, the term functions as a bridge connecting the communal, everyday acts of nourishment with broader expressions of shared human experience and philosophical reflection.
- At the close of his discourse, the congregation was dismissed, and the church remained to partake of the sacrament.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - I propose at that hour to go back and partake of a simple and solitary repast—two poached eggs and a muffin—at Pratt’s Hotel.”
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James - But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - In such a spot death loses half its terrors, and even the inanimate dust appears to partake of the spirit of beauty which hallows this region.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
