Took in

As a detective trying to solve the mystery of the crossword clue ‘Took in,’ I approached the problem logically. I knew that the answer had to be a verb, and that it had to be five letters long. Then, I considered the possible meanings of ‘took in.’ It could refer to a person who has given shelter to someone or something, or it could be used to describe the process of understanding a new idea. As I thought it over, the word ‘ATE‘ suddenly came to mind. While it didn’t fit the first definition of ‘took in,’ it perfectly fit the second definition. When we ‘take in’ a new idea, we process it and understand it, much like when we ‘eat’ something, we process and digest it. With this realization, the answer ‘ATE‘ fell into place, and I was able to solve the mystery of the crossword clue.