Word.ws English Dictionary

take on the chin

take on the chin verb: to accept without flinching or complaining.

Verb

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

  1. (UK, idiomatic, transitive) To accept without flinching or complaining.
    • Elsewhere in Sweden recently, two underage girls pressed charges when a teenage boy exposed himself to them at a lake. The court decided, despite the victims' testimonies, that the offence was "not of a sexual nature" and dismissed it. But I'm guessing the girls didn't push for molestation charges...2013 September 20, Holly Baxter, “Is masturbating in public a laughing matter?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2023, retrieved 06 Jan 2014
  2. (US, idiomatic, transitive) To be deeply impacted by something.
    • The situation seems to be designed so the taxpayers take it on the chin no matter what. District residents who vote down a budget believing they are voting against any tax raise still receive higher tax bills.2005 May 20, Robert David Kostoff, My Line Story, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 136

Forms of take on the chin

third-person singular presenttakes on the chin
present participletaking on the chin
pasttook on the chin
past participletaken on the chin

Origin of take on the chin

A reference to the sport of boxing.

Questions about take on the chin

What does take on the chin mean?
Take on the chin means to accept without flinching or complaining.
What part of speech is take on the chin?
Take on the chin is a verb.
What is the past tense of take on the chin?
The past tense of take on the chin is took on the chin.

Words near take on the chin in the dictionary

  1. take offs
  2. take on
  3. take on board
  4. take on faith
  5. take on strength
  6. take on the chin
  7. take on trust
  8. take on water
  9. take one day at a time
  10. take one for the team
  11. take one up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take on the chin (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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