Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OB-TAIN, v.i.

1. To be received in customary or common use; to continue in use; to be established in practice. The Theodosian code, several hundred years after Justinian's time, obtained in the western parts of the empire. Baker.
2. To be established; to subsist in nature. The general laws of fluidity, elasticity and gravity, obtain in animal and inanimate tubes. Cheyne.
3. To prevail; to succeed. [Little used.] Bacon.