Word.ws English Dictionary

take it upon oneself

take it upon oneself verb: to assume personal responsibility for a task or action.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To assume personal responsibility for a task or action.
    • She took it upon herself to manage the project.
    • The home secretary of the day, the bumptious Sir William Joynson-Hicks, took it upon himself to attend the house, a formality dating from the 17th century to ensure no impostors were substituted, ostensibly to ensure all was well, and he proclaimed the news publicly, even though the government was...September 8 2022, Stephen Bates, “Queen Elizabeth II obituary”, in The Guardian

Forms of take it upon oneself

third-person singular presenttakes it upon oneself
present participletaking it upon oneself
pasttook it upon oneself
past participletaken it upon oneself

Questions about take it upon oneself

What does take it upon oneself mean?
Take it upon oneself means to assume personal responsibility for a task or action.
What part of speech is take it upon oneself?
Take it upon oneself is a verb.
What is the past tense of take it upon oneself?
The past tense of take it upon oneself is took it upon oneself.

Words near take it upon oneself in the dictionary

  1. take it up the bumhole
  2. take it up the butt
  3. take it up the butthole
  4. take it up the rear
  5. take it up the rear end
  6. take it upon oneself
  7. take it, or leave it
  8. take its course
  9. take its rise
  10. take its toll
  11. take kindly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take it upon oneself (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-take it upon oneself.ogg.

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