Word.ws English Dictionary

soaking up

soaking up is the present participle and gerund of soak up.

Meaning of soak up

Verb

soak up (third-person singular simple present soaks up, present participle soaking up, simple past and past participle soaked up)

  1. To absorb or draw in a substance, especially all of that substance.
    • The tissue soaked up all of the spilled milk.
  2. (broadly, figuratively) To absorb or deflect a series of actions; to endure a behavior from someone.
    • Tan was not at Stamford Bridge and Mackay's tactics proved effective as his side soaked up Chelsea's attacks despite conceding the majority of possession, and frequently threatened on the break.2013 October 19, Chris Bevan, BBC Sport
  3. (idiomatic) To learn, especially passively or eagerly; to allow an experience to affect oneself.
  4. To enjoy some effects.
    • soak up the sun

Questions about soaking up

What is soaking up the present participle and gerund of?
Soaking up is the present participle and gerund of soak up.

Words near soaking up in the dictionary

  1. soakiest
  2. soakin'
  3. soaking
  4. soaking away
  5. soaking in
  6. soaking up
  7. soaking wet
  8. soakingly
  9. soakings
  10. soaks
  11. soaks away

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: soaking up (page history and authors); soak up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “soaking up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/soaking_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.