Word.ws English Dictionary

take the heat

take the heat verb: to take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences.

Verb

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

  1. (informal) To take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences.
    • If this decision turns out to be a bad one, I'll take the heat for it.
    • For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left...2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take, heat.
    • I can take the heat, baby, best believe
      That's the moment I shine2023 May 25, Dua Lipa, Caroline Ailin, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, “Dance the Night”, in Barbie the Album, performed by Dua Lipa

Forms of take the heat

third-person singular presenttakes the heat
present participletaking the heat
pasttook the heat
past participletaken the heat

Questions about take the heat

What does take the heat mean?
Take the heat means to take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences.
What part of speech is take the heat?
Take the heat is a verb.
What is the past tense of take the heat?
The past tense of take the heat is took the heat.

Words near take the heat in the dictionary

  1. take the floor
  2. take the front seat
  3. take the game to
  4. take the gap
  5. take the gilt off the gingerbread
  6. take the heat
  7. take the helm
  8. take the hint
  9. take the initiative
  10. take the knee
  11. take the l

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take the heat (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “take the heat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_the_heat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.