take-up
noun
the act of taking up.
take-up
American
[teyk-uhp]
/ ˈteɪkˌʌp /
noun
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take-ups
plural
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the act of taking up.
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Machinery.
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any of various devices for taking up slack, winding in, or compensating for the looseness of parts due to wear.
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the contraction of fabric resulting from the wet operations in the finishing process, especially fulling.
take up
British
verb
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to adopt the study, practice, or activity of
to take up gardening
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to occupy and break in (uncultivated land)
he took up some hundreds of acres in the back country
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to shorten (a garment or part of a garment)
she took all her skirts up three inches
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to pay off (a note, mortgage, etc)
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to agree to or accept (an invitation, etc)
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to pursue further or resume (something)
he took up French where he left off
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to absorb (a liquid)
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to adopt as a protégé; act as a patron to
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to occupy or fill (space or time)
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to interrupt, esp in order to contradict or criticize
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to argue or dispute with (someone)
can I take you up on two points in your talk?
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to accept what is offered by (someone)
let me take you up on your invitation
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to discuss with (someone); refer to
to take up a fault with the manufacturers
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(intr) to begin to keep company or associate with
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noun
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the claiming or acceptance of something, esp a state benefit, that is due or available
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( as modifier )
take-up rate
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machinery the distance through which a part must move to absorb the free play in a system
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(modifier) denoting the part of a mechanism on which film, tape, or wire is wound up
a take-up spool on a tape recorder
take up
Idioms
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Raise, lift, as in We have to take up the old carpet and sand the floor . [c. 1300]
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Reduce in size, shorten, tighten, as in I have to take up the hem of this coat , or You have to take up the slack in that reel or you'll never land a fish . [c. 1800]
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Station oneself, settle in, as in We took up our positions at the front . [Mid-1500s]
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Accept an option, bet, or challenge, as in No one wanted to take up that bet . This usage is often expanded to take someone up on , as in You're offering to clean the barn? I'll take you up on that . Take up dates from about 1700, the variant from the early 1900s.
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Develop an interest in, begin an activity, as in Jim took up gardening . [Mid-1400s] Also see go into , def. 3.
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Use up or occupy entirely, as in The extra duties took up most of my time , or This desk takes up too much space in the office , or How much room will your car take up? [c. 1600]
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Begin again, resume, as in I'll take up the story where you left off . [Mid-1600s]
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Deal with, as in Let's take up these questions one at a time . [c. 1500]
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Absorb, as in These large trees are taking up all the water in the soil . [Late 1600s]
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Support, adopt as a protegé, as in She's always taking up one or another young singer . [Late 1300s] Also see the subsequent entries beginning with take up .
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of take-up
First recorded in 1815–25; noun use of verb phrase take up
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.
See Examples For:
Currently the country has a low take-up, with only 25% of households equipped with an air-con unit.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
He said that, this year, CagriSema trials failed or underwhelmed, while Ozempic prescriptions keep lagging even as take-up of the Wegovy pill have impressed.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 10, 2026
Management plans to repeat the job-cut program in 2026 after strong take-up in the previous round, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
Assuming every eligible child participates in the program, in what the firm calls a “100% take-up scenario,” seed deposits alone imply 14 million qualifying newborns between 2025 and 2028.
From Barron's ● Dec. 31, 2025
Fadi popped in a new roll of film and threaded it into the take-up spool.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
However, new efforts by Meta to better identify which users on its platforms are children will take up to a year to be rolled out.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The official rules on estate recovery take up just three paragraphs on Medicaid’s website.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
In summer months, the market’s vendors and booths take up about 40% of public street parking in the civic center area, Myerhoff added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
The oceans take up more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by humanity's greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
The laws of quantum mechanics treat particles such as the electron as points; that is, they take up no space at all.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Vaccine take-ups have quadrupled since the pass was made mandatory last Thursday.
From Reuters ● Oct. 27, 2021
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.
