Brewer's: Taking On

Said of a woman in hysterics; to fret; to grieve passionately, as, “Come, don't take on so!”

“Lance, who ... took upon himself the whole burden of Dame Debbitch's ... `taking on,' as such fits of passio hysterica are usually termed.” —SirW.Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. xxvi.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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