While in New York he took time to visit some friends.
This is an example of the phrase take time to do something from Longman Dictionary.
My question is, can we also say While in New York he took time visiting some friends? Is that also grammatically correct?
Best Answer
The idiomatic phrase is to take the time to do something which means:
Gngram finds no instance of "take (the) time visiting".
However, you can certainly spend (some) time doing something: