take liberties
Idioms-
Behave improperly or disrespectfully; also, make unwanted sexual advances. For example, He doesn't allow staff members to take liberties, such as calling clients by their first names , or She decided that if Jack tried to take liberties with her she would go straight home . This idiom uses liberties in the sense of “an overstepping of propriety,” and thus differs markedly from take the liberty of . [c. 1700]
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Make a statement or take an action not warranted by the facts or circumstances, as in Their book takes liberties with the historical record .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Patterson and editor Patrick J. Smith interweave scenes of intrigue and shocking violence, take liberties with Amziah’s storytelling asides and give us barn-burning musical sequences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
They can take liberties: A Meta executive posted that her OpenClaw bots began deleting her inbox despite instructions to seek confirmation before acting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
A consistent knock on the team is that there’s no response when other teams take liberties.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 25, 2023
Screenwriters need to take liberties and with a great novel, writers are often too faithful for their own good.
From New York Times ● Oct. 24, 2019
“Oh, how insufferable you’ve become. How do you know what I feel? You take liberties with other peoples minds. You can’t tell how I feel or what I feel or why I feel.”
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
