My husband and I were recently watching a movie in which a bad guy used the phrase “I took care of…” to refer to killing another person who was in the way of his boss’s plans. That set me to thinking about the phrasal verb “take care of” and its different meanings.

Interestingly, when we search for this phrase in most common dictionaries, the slang meaning I mentioned above (though well understood by native English speakers) is not listed.

Among the listed meanings, we may find the ideas of doing what is required to help someone who has obvious needs, treating a person or object gently so they stay in good condition, dealing with or doing a task, or covering something for others (such as paying a whole group ticket at a restaurant).

Apart from that first, slang meaning, then, all of the other meanings are pretty neutral in their sense of usage. Yet, ironically, this phrase about caring can take on a very different flavor, depending on the heart of the speaker as it may sometimes bleed through in the tone of his/her voice.

Think, for example about how differently a wife may feel between these two scenarios. In the first, her husband sees the broken household step she accidentally caused with her clumsiness and dropping of a heavy object; he grabs his tool box and a plank of wood and turns away stiffly while growling “I’ll take care of it!” under his breath. But in the second, when the husband finds his wife scared and crying after she tripped and dropped a hugh sack and nearly fell through the resulting gap in the now-broken step, he makes sure she is not injured and reaches out to embrace her and calm her shaking. Then he quietly says, “I didn’t realize that that step was in such bad shape. I’ll take care of it after I help you clean up the spill.”

I would wager the second situation will end much better for them both. Because in his tone and from his heart, she will know that by taking care of the broken step and spilled contents willingly, he really wants to take care of her body and her heart.

And that a beautiful thing.