Word.ws English Dictionary

take charge

take charge verb: synonym of take control, especially in situations involving informal command over a group of people.

Verb

take charge (third-person singular simple present takes charge, present participle taking charge, simple past took charge, past participle taken charge)

  1. Synonym of take control, especially in situations involving informal command over a group of people.
    • The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
    • Steam also takes charge of South Eastern (former P.L.M.) trains from Paris to Marseilles and the Riviera from Lyons onwards, and of Western Region trains from Le Mans onwards, as also between Paris and Dieppe and Le Havre.1958 July, 'Voyageur', “Modern French Locomotive Work—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 455
    Synonyms:
    take control

Synonyms of take charge

Forms of take charge

third-person singular presenttakes charge
present participletaking charge
pasttook charge
past participletaken charge

Questions about take charge

What does take charge mean?
Take charge means synonym of take control, especially in situations involving informal command over a group of people.
What part of speech is take charge?
Take charge is a verb.
What is the past tense of take charge?
The past tense of take charge is took charge.

Words near take charge in the dictionary

  1. take care of
  2. take care of business
  3. take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves
  4. take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves
  5. take care of yourself
  6. take charge
  7. take check
  8. take coals to Newcastle
  9. take cold
  10. take command
  11. take control

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take charge (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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