take shape

Idioms  

1. Also, shape up. Turn out, develop, acquire a distinctive form, as in Her reelection campaign is already taking shape, two years before the election, or Can you tell us how the book is shaping up? The first term dates from the mid-1700s and the variant, originally put as shape out, from about 1600.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

take shape

Where much democracy research documents what people say they believe, ethnography examines how and why political worldviews take shape within the full context of daily experiences, relationships, and social environments.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

It was really starting to take shape in his brain.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

The theory began to take shape in the 1920s, when Georges Lemaître linked Edwin Hubble’s observations of receding galaxies with Alexander Friedmann’s earlier equations describing an expanding universe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

However, the 50-day moving average has flattened and is no longer declining, while a potential inverse head-and-shoulders pattern is starting to take shape.

From Barron's ● May 6, 2026

Then the wheels in my head began to turn and my ridiculous plan began to take shape.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Related Words

• brew
• come on
• dominate
• emerge
• hover
• mount
• overshadow
• portend
• soar
• stand out
• threaten