(linguistics) a minimal meaningful unit of language, the meaning of which cannot be understood from that of its component morphemes. Take off (in the senses to mimic, to become airborne, etc) is a lexeme, as well as the independent morphemes take and off
Word Origin
C20: from lex(icon) + -eme
Word Origin and History for lexemes
lexeme
n.
1937, from lexicon + -eme, ending abstracted from morpheme. Related: Lexemic.