From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtake after somebody phrasal verbLIKE somebody OR somethingto look or behave like an older relative Jenni really takes after her mother.GRAMMAR: Using the progressiveTake after is not used in the progressive. You say: He takes after you. ✗Don’t say: He is taking after you. → take→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
take after • Percy was changing so rapidly that no one could tell whom he would eventually take after.• The decision was taken after a two-year long study by the Department of Health.• Helen, Eurydice thought, took after her after all.• She has even been snipped out of a photograph taken after her wedding.• The wind was biting, and sleet blew into our faces and stung our eyes during take after take after take.• Soft-shelled crabs are blue crabs taken after the hard shell has been discarded and the new one is still soft.• He takes after the old feller in that respect.• So she slipped on her magic boots and took after them. 