Word.ws English Dictionary

take one's courage in both hands

take one's courage in both hands verb: to summon up one's courage in readiness for a difficult or dangerous action.

Verb

take one's courage in both hands (third-person singular simple present takes one's courage in both hands, present participle taking one's courage in both hands, simple past took one's courage in both hands, past participle taken one's courage in both hands)

  1. (idiomatic) To summon up one's courage in readiness for a difficult or dangerous action.
    • I know that disobeying your father is hard, but you must take your courage in both hands and follow the path that's right for you.

Forms of take one's courage in both hands

third-person singular presenttakes one's courage in both hands
present participletaking one's courage in both hands
pasttook one's courage in both hands
past participletaken one's courage in both hands

Origin of take one's courage in both hands

Compare French prendre son courage à deux mains.

Questions about take one's courage in both hands

What does take one's courage in both hands mean?
Take one's courage in both hands means to summon up one's courage in readiness for a difficult or dangerous action.
What part of speech is take one's courage in both hands?
Take one's courage in both hands is a verb.
What is the past tense of take one's courage in both hands?
The past tense of take one's courage in both hands is took one's courage in both hands.

Words near take one's courage in both hands in the dictionary

  1. take one's bat and ball and go home
  2. take one's best shot
  3. take one's business elsewhere
  4. take one's chance
  5. take one's chances
  6. take one's courage in both hands
  7. take one's cue from
  8. take one's custom elsewhere
  9. take one's ease
  10. take one's eye off the ball
  11. take one's eyes off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take one's courage in both hands (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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