Take it easy means relax and do not push yourself. Slow down, and stop worrying about it.
It works as advice to somebody working too hard or recovering from illness, where a doctor will tell a patient to take it easy for a fortnight. It also works as a warning to somebody getting angry, where it means calm down. And in American English it is a farewell, said instead of goodbye. Those three uses are separated entirely by tone, which makes it a genuinely tricky phrase to read in writing.
1phrasetake it easyTo relax and avoid exerting yourself.
“The doctor told him to take it easy for a week.”
2phrasecalmUsed to tell someone to calm down.
“Take it easy, nobody is blaming you.”
From take easy + it.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Idioms, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.
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