Hi Gyan, Yes, indeed. Many phrasal verbs take on different meaning depending on the context. 1.John takes out a pen from his pocket. (takes out: retrieves something from a container, bag, compartment, drawer and so on) 2. I am taking her out to lunch. (inviting (someone) to join you for an event) Just as a side discussion, some phrasal verbs are separable while others are non-separable. (A) Non-separable phrasal verb: verb (e.g ran) + particle (e.g. into) I RAN INTO John at the supermarket. (correct; ran into: to bump into someone by chance) I RAN John INTO at the supermarket. (incorrect, RAN INTO is non-separable) Your sentence #2 is an example where "take out" MUST be used as a separable phrasal verb. 2.I am taking out her to lunch. (incorrect) / I am taking her out to lunch. (correct) (B) Separable phrasal verb: verb (e.g take) + particle (e.g. off) + noun/pronoun (e.g. your shoes) OR verb (e.g. take) + noun/pronoun (e.g. your shoes) + particle (e.g. off) Your sentence #1 is an example of using "take out" as a separable phrasal verb (You have a choice of either separating the verb from the particle or leaving them together. Either way, the meaning stays the same.) 1. John TAKES OUT a pen from his pocket. OR John TAKES a pen OUT of his pocket. I hope this helps.

Yes, the meaning changes, but the meanings are related. In sentence #1, “take out” means to remove the pen from the pocket. The action involves something (the pen) moving from inside to outside. In sentence #2, “take out” means “invite her to go ‘out’ — meaning, to a restaurant, rather than eating at one’s house — to eat lunch.” The action involves taking/inviting someone to leave “inside the house” and go “outside the house” to eat.

As you already found out, there are a couple of more meanings for "take out". Apart from the two meanings already explained above by John, I would add a couple more that I can think off the top of my head, and don't be surprised if there's one or two more, hahaha. "take out a loan" - receive money from an institution like a bank, that you have to pay back in monthly installments "take out a license" - obtain some kind of permission from an authority, like a real estate license "take out an enemy" - to kill someone, in this example I used "an enemy", but it can be any person "take out a bridge" as in "the missile took out the bridge" - to destroy something "takeout" (usually written as one word, with no space) - refers to food you order in a restaurant, but that you don't eat in the restaurant There is another expression that comes to mind right now, which is "Don't take it out on me!" This expression is used, for example, in this situation: Person A is angry because he was treated unfairly by his or her boss. So he/she starts shouting or acting angrily - unfairly - towards their partner. So the partner would say "I know your boss treated you unfairly, but don't take it out on me!" meaning "don't vent your anger at me, because I didn't do anything wrong to you"