took up; taken up; taking up; takes up
2
a
: to begin to occupy (land)
b
: to gather from a number of sources
took up a collection
3
a
: to accept or adopt for the purpose of assisting
b
: to accept or adopt as one's own
took up the life of a farmer
c
: to absorb or incorporate into itself
plants taking up nutrients
4
a
: to enter upon (something, such as a business, hobby, or subject of study)
take up skiing
took up the trumpet
b
: to proceed to consider or deal with
take up one problem at a time
5
: to establish oneself in
took up residence in town
6
: to occupy entirely or exclusively : fill up
the meeting was taken up with old business
7
: to make tighter or shorter
take up the slack
8
: to respond favorably to (a person offering a bet, challenge, proposal, etc.)
took me up on it
9
: to begin again or take over from another
we must take the good work up again
1
: to make a beginning where another has left off
2
: to become shortened : draw together : shrink
Examples of take-up in a Sentence
Verb
please take up the blanket so I can look underneath it
the soil was so dry that the plant seemed to take up the much-needed water instantly
Recent Examples on the Web
Max Goldbart, Deadline, 28 Aug. 2025
The clutch had quite a bit of weight behind it, but finding the take-up point was a cinch, and the gas pedal quickly introduced me to how fast the independent throttle body-equipped 4.0 revved.
—Peter Nelson, Forbes.com, 25 July 2025
Literary Hub, 28 Oct. 2025
The State Building Commission will take up the first steps toward overhauling the state's prisons this week.
—Hope Karnopp, jsonline.com, 27 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for take-up
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show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Noun
The streamer still has a relatively low take-up in big territories and now boasts a healthy originals library of shows that can be sold in second windows.
—Max Goldbart, Deadline, 28 Aug. 2025
The clutch had quite a bit of weight behind it, but finding the take-up point was a cinch, and the gas pedal quickly introduced me to how fast the independent throttle body-equipped 4.0 revved.
—Peter Nelson, Forbes.com, 25 July 2025
Verb
Depending on the depth, their skeletons can take up to fifty years to descend—a gentle rain continuously falling in all the world’s oceans since at least the Middle Cambrian era, over 500 million years ago.
—Literary Hub, 28 Oct. 2025
The State Building Commission will take up the first steps toward overhauling the state's prisons this week.
—Hope Karnopp, jsonline.com, 27 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for take-up
Cite this Entry
“Take-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/take-up. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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