Take (Back) To

Question

1a "He went to his car."1b "He went back to his car."2a "He took to his house."2b "He took back to his house."Could 2b be correct English?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Both 2a and 2b are wrong.

SheltieBites · Answer

3a "He went to the hills."
3b. "He went back to the hills."

4a "He took to the hills."
4b "He took back to the hills."

www.learnersdictionary.com/search/take
If I am trying to use sense 1 of "take to", could the 4b be grammatical English?

Khoff · Answer

The idiomatic meaning of "take to" (meaning "go to") is only used in certain contexts.  In addition to the ones your dictionary link provides ("take to the hills" and "take to the streets"), the only  one I can think of is "he took to his bed, " meaning he began a long period of being bedridden due to illness or depression.   You can not insert "back" or anything else into this idiom; it is a fixed expression.    (While it's useful to recognize the meaning of this when you read it,  it's really not a very common expression.  I would not worry very much about learning how to use it yourself.)

Mentee · Answer

took to = go somewhere especially for safety in imminent danger/ threat (like resort to a course of action)
e.g. The dogs were chasing him. He took to the hills.

I am not sure of 'take back to':
took back to = return again to (like retract)

If you wish, refer to the http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
Query the keyword 'take' in the Search at the top. Scroll down to 'Phrasal Verbs'.

Some phrasal verbs are uncommon in everyday speech. If you are not familiar of the backdrop or context they don't make sense easily especially in isolation.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/take

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