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third-person singular simple present takes shape, present participle taking shape, simple past took shape, past participle taken shape
(intransitive, often figurative) To take a definite form. quotations examples
Yet it was all interesting and the process of being partly responsible for stripping down a locomotive and seeing it take shape again was quite a thrill.
1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 285
It was the section of the North Midland Railway from Derby to Ambergate which provided the springboard for a scheme that took shape in the early part of 1845 for a route through the Peak to Manchester.
1960 March, J. P. Wilson, E. N. C. Haywood, “The route through the Peak - Derby to Manchester: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 148