Word.ws English Dictionary

take the ball and run with it

take the ball and run with it verb: to continue working on something that someone else started, especially when one does so efficiently and successfully.

Verb

take the ball and run with it (third-person singular simple present takes the ball and runs with it, present participle taking the ball and running with it, simple past took the ball and ran with it, past participle taken the ball and run with it)

  1. To continue working on something that someone else started, especially when one does so efficiently and successfully.

Forms of take the ball and run with it

third-person singular presenttakes the ball and runs with it
present participletaking the ball and running with it
pasttook the ball and ran with it
past participletaken the ball and run with it
alternative formpick up the ball and run with it

Questions about take the ball and run with it

What does take the ball and run with it mean?
Take the ball and run with it means to continue working on something that someone else started, especially when one does so efficiently and successfully.
What part of speech is take the ball and run with it?
Take the ball and run with it is a verb.
What is the past tense of take the ball and run with it?
The past tense of take the ball and run with it is took the ball and ran with it.

Words near take the ball and run with it in the dictionary

  1. Take Thatters
  2. take the aam off
  3. take the air
  4. take the back track
  5. take the bait
  6. take the ball and run with it
  7. take the bench
  8. take the biscuit
  9. take the bitter with the sweet
  10. take the bread out of someone's mouth
  11. take the browns to the super bowl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take the ball and run with it (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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