Word.ws English Dictionary

take time out

take time out verb: to temporarily suspend an activity in order to do something else.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, often) To temporarily suspend an activity in order to do something else.
    • I took time out from my studies to travel for a year.
    • “Everyone recognised him but he was very humble and was happy to take time out for people to take photographs with him,” the spokesperson said. “It was a real pleasure to have him compete at our event.”2022 September 20, Danya Hajjaji, “‘Really nice guy’: Tom Hardy surprises competitors with entry and victory in martial arts contest”, in The Guardian

Forms of take time out

third-person singular presenttakes time out
present participletaking time out
pasttook time out
past participletaken time out

Questions about take time out

What does take time out mean?
Take time out means to temporarily suspend an activity in order to do something else.
What part of speech is take time out?
Take time out is a verb.
What is the past tense of take time out?
The past tense of take time out is took time out.

Words near take time out in the dictionary

  1. take the wrong turn at Albuquerque
  2. take the wrong way
  3. take time
  4. take time by the forelock
  5. take time off
  6. take time out
  7. take to
  8. take to court
  9. take to drink
  10. take to heart
  11. take to one's bed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take time out (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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