Take Out

[rosenn]

There is a question about the phrase 'take out':

"He took out his anger on us."
"He took out his own failures on us."
"He took out his bad game on us." (context: sports)

Dictionaries say that the proper format is 'to take out X', where 'X' is a feeling like anger, frustration, etc. But google does return hits for the usage suggested in sentence two, where 'X' is not a feeling. So are the second and third usages possibly incorrect?

 

[bwkcaj_ca]

Like many phrasal verbs "take out" has a variety of meanings depending on context.

In each of the sentences you quoted "take out" implies an action or other response of someone as a result of a sense of frustration or annoyance.

So would you not agree that "take out" is a feeling in all three sentences? The second and third sentences just provide more information; namely the source of the frustration or annoyance therefore all sentences are grammatically correct.