Word: take up Part of Speech: verb 1. To lift; to raise. Labels: transitive Example: I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. Example: 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: […] 2. To lift; to raise. Labels: transitive Example: We're going to have to take up the floorboards. Example: 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 3. To lift; to raise. Labels: transitive 4. To lift; to raise. Labels: transitive Example: If we take up the sleeves a bit, that shirt will look much better on you. 5. To lift; to raise. Labels: transitive Example: The reel automatically took up the slack. 6. To occupy; to consume (space or time). Labels: transitive Example: The books on finance take up three shelves. Example: All my time is taken up with looking after the kids. 7. To take, to assume (one’s appointed or intended place). Labels: transitive Example: She took up her post at the foot of the stairs. 8. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: transitive Example: I’ve taken up knitting. Example: I wish to take up mathematics. 9. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: transitive Example: He took up his post as assistant director last Friday. 10. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: transitive Example: Let’s take this up with the manager. Example: 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. 11. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: transitive Example: I never said thank you for taking up our case. 12. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: transitive Example: Shall we take them up on their offer to help us move? 13. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: transitive Example: They took up the cry of their oppressed compatriots. 14. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: ambitransitive, transitive Example: Let’s take up where we left off. 15. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: transitive Example: So I’d imagine if they were to take up this system, or a similar system, we should be able to build quicker. 16. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: Canada, transitive Example: You have 30 minutes for the quiz. We’ll take up the answers at 1 o'clock. Example: 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. 17. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: Australia, New-Zealand, transitive 18. To set about doing or dealing with (something). Labels: UK, transitive 19. To arrest (a person). Labels: archaic, transitive Example: The police took up the suspect. 20. To reprove or reproach (a person). Labels: transitive Example: […] 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; […] 21. To begin to support or patronize, to sponsor (a person), to adopt as protégé. Labels: transitive