take up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: takes up
form: taking up
form: took up
form: taken up
form: take one up
Senses: examples: text: I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 2:11:
text: Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: […]
ref: 1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 19:
glosses: To lift; to raise.
To pick up.
examples: text: We're going to have to take up the floorboards.
text: It is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that a temporary writ of injunction issue, enjoining said defendant and all persons acting under or for it, from in any manner taking up, disturbing or interfering with the road-bed and track of said plaintiff so as to prevent the passage of cars thereon
ref: 1876, Supreme Court of Iowa, June Term 1876 court record, “The Davenport Central Railway Co. v. The Davenport Gas Light Co., Appeal from Scott Circuit Court”, published in The American Railway Reports, Volume 14
text: They had pickaxes in their hands and wore corduroy trousers and that little leather band below the knee that goes by the astonishing name of “York-to-London.” They seemed to be working with peculiar vehemence, so that I stopped and asked one what they were doing. “We are taking up Picadilly,” he said to me.
ref: 1915 April, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], “Taking Up Picadilly”, in Fifty-one Tales, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, →OCLC:
text: Passenger traffic was subsequently discontinued, and early in the recent war a considerable amount of the permanent way at the Treforest end of the railway was taken up.
ref: 1946 January and February, “Notes and News: Demolition of Rhydyfelin Viaduct”, in Railway Magazine, page 52:
glosses: To lift; to raise.
To remove (a ground or floor surface, including the bed of a road or the track of a railway).
glosses: To lift; to raise.
To absorb (a liquid), to soak up.
examples: text: If we take up the sleeves a bit, that shirt will look much better on you.
topics: business
manufacturing
sewing
textiles
glosses: To lift; to raise.
To shorten (a garment), especially by hemming.
synonyms: take in
examples: text: The reel automatically took up the slack.
glosses: To lift; to raise.
To tighten or wind in (a rope, slack, etc.)
synonyms: take in
examples: text: The books on finance take up three shelves.
text: All my time is taken up with looking after the kids.
text: She is popular with passengers as an all-weather vessel, but rather the reverse with yachtsmen as she has at times proved somewhat unwieldy, and certainly takes up a good deal of space in the narrow channels.
ref: 1956 February, R. C. Riley, “The Lymington Railway and Isle of Wight Ferry”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:
glosses: To occupy; to consume (space or time).
examples: text: She took up her post at the foot of the stairs.
glosses: To take, to assume (one’s appointed or intended place).
examples: text: I’ve taken up knitting.
text: I wish to take up mathematics.
text: Recently, I have taken up the double bass again, but because time and neglect erode ability, calluses turn soft, and muscle memory fades, I need to woodshed (practice) to get back into shape and build up my chops.
ref: 1999 June, Al Stevens, “Jukebox: Covering the Basses”, in Dr. Dobb's Journal, volume 24, number 6, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, Inc., →ISSN, page 115:
text: Each of the things he took up, he took up with passion and intensity
ref: 2004, Jane Powell, Linda Svendsen, Bungalow: The Ultimate Arts & Crafts Home, →ISBN, page 44:
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To begin doing (an activity) on a regular basis.
examples: text: He took up his post as assistant director last Friday.
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To begin functioning in (a role or position), to assume (an office).
examples: text: Let’s take this up with the manager.
text: While such social effects have not gone entirely unquestioned, most critical work on the topic of childhood innocence […] has focused on the regulation of children's sexual agency. Here, I take up the notion of childhood innocence to examine how, in the US context, it regulates race relations by producing a particular "childhood" that perpetuates White supremacy.
ref: 2019 February 1, J. C. Garden, “Interrogating innocence: “Childhood” as exclusionary social practice”, in Childhood, volume 26, number 1, page 56:
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To address or discuss (an issue).
examples: text: I never said thank you for taking up our case.
ref: 1993 December 12, Jim Sheridan, Terry George, In the Name of the Father, spoken by Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis), distributed by Universal Pictures:
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To accept, to adopt (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.).
antonyms: turn down
examples: text: Shall we take them up on their offer to help us move?
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To accept (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.) from.
raw_tags: with 'on'
examples: text: They took up the cry of their oppressed compatriots.
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To join in (saying something).
examples: text: Let’s take up where we left off.
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To resume, to return to something that was interrupted.
examples: text: So I’d imagine if they were to take up this system, or a similar system, we should be able to build quicker.
ref: 2008 April 23, Iolo ap Dafydd, “Wood homes ‘solution’ to shortage”, in BBC News:
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To implement, to employ, to put into use.
examples: text: You have 30 minutes for the quiz. We’ll take up the answers at 1 o'clock.
text: Also, the grade 12’s in the class were also called down to the cafeteria from 9:30 am to about 9:50 am, so they missed class when I took up some of the worksheets.
ref: 2015, Mr. Bawa, Mr. Bawa's Semester 1 Classes at St. Mary's:
text: Can someone in CSCC37 (mustafa's tutorial!) email me the solution to the midterm? (the tutorial right after the midterm where he took up the solutions)
ref: 2018, /u/CharmingHistorian3, Mustafa's C37 midterm solution?:
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To review the solutions to a test or other assessment with a class.
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To begin occupying and working (a plot of uncultivated land), to break in.
glosses: To set about doing or dealing with (something).
To pay off, to clear (a debt, loan, mortgage, etc.).
examples: text: The police took up the suspect.
synonyms: take in
glosses: To arrest (a person).
examples: text: […] he talked strangely of Mr. Law […] wearing a pair of stockings that a ploughman would not have picked off a dunghill; upon which last expression I took him up for saying that Mr. Law carried his expression beyond truth, when he himself exposed what he thought wrong with so much vivacity, and Dr. Hartley said that he thought there I had him; […]
ref: 1856, John Byrom, Richard Parkinson, Francis Robert Raines, The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom, page 114:
glosses: To reprove or reproach (a person).
glosses: To begin to support or patronize, to sponsor (a person), to adopt as protégé.
Derived terms: take up for
take up the running
take up with