uptake

[ uhp-teyk ]

noun

1. apprehension; understanding or comprehension; mental grasp:

   quick on the uptake.

2. an act or instance of taking up; a lifting:

   the uptake of fertilizer by machines.

3. Also called take-up. Machinery. a pipe or passage leading upward from below, as for conducting smoke or a current of air.
4. Physiology. absorption.

uptake

/ ˈʌpˌteɪk /

noun

1. a pipe, shaft, etc, that is used to convey smoke or gases, esp one that connects a furnace to a chimney
2. See upcast
   mining another term for upcast
3. taking up or lifting up
4. the act of accepting or taking up something on offer or available
5. quick on the uptake informal.
   quick on the uptake quick to understand or learn
6. slow on the uptake informal.
   slow on the uptake slow to understand or learn

Word History and Origins

Origin of uptake¹

1810–20; up- + take; compare take-up

Idioms and Phrases

see on the uptake .

Example Sentences

That’s such a giant amount that we’ll almost certainly need to use a variety of methods to get anywhere close, including planting trees and increasing carbon uptake in agricultural soils.

From MIT Technology Review

Woodall is exploring asbestos sites because he hopes to find one that might work well for a subsequent field trial to evaluate ways of accelerating carbon uptake.

From MIT Technology Review

For now, Scroll has produced barely any revenue for its partners, a slow uptake that has made some media executives question how much to promote it on their sites.

From Digiday

If you had asked me to guess all the ways that a program like that could fail, it would’ve taken me a while to guess that you simply didn’t get parental uptake.

From Freakonomics

In addition to the pharma manufacturers, and distributors, and advocates, there’s one more institution that played a very large role in the massive uptake of prescription opioids.

From Freakonomics

But it shows that the Romney team is pretty quick on the uptake.

From The Daily Beast

It is too early to tell, but we are hopeful to see if there is an uptake in sales given this recent exposure.

From The Daily Beast

Those drugs are SSRIs—serotonin uptake inhibitors—and they spin their mood magic by elevating levels of serotonin in the brain.

From The Daily Beast

"Say 'at it is," cried Jess, who was quicker in the uptake than her daughter.

From Project Gutenberg

And in that look old Fanny, slow in the uptake though she undoubtedly was, read a tremendous piece of news.

From Project Gutenberg

The radiobiologist then attempts to interpret the accumulated evidence of uptake of radionuclides.

From Project Gutenberg

Comparison of the resulting oxygen uptake with glycerol and with glycerol plus catalase is shown in Figure 11.

From Project Gutenberg

He appreciated the fact that the other was, to use an American colloquialism, "quick on the uptake."

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• awareness
• grasp
• insight
• intelligence
• judgment
• knowledge
• perception
• realization
• recognition
• sense