take up

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To pick up.
   • I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 2:11
   • Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: […]1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 19
2. (transitive) To remove (a ground or floor surface, including the bed of a road or the track of a railway).
   • We're going to have to take up the floorboards.
   • It is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that a temporary writ of injunction issue, enjoining said defendant and all persons acting under or for it, from in any manner taking up, disturbing or interfering with the road-bed and track of said plaintiff so as to prevent the passage of cars thereon1876, Supreme Court of Iowa, June Term 1876 court record, “The Davenport Central Railway Co. v. The Davenport Gas Light Co., Appeal from Scott Circuit Court”, published in The American Railway...
3. (transitive) To absorb (a liquid), to soak up.
4. (transitive) To shorten (a garment), especially by hemming.
   • If we take up the sleeves a bit, that shirt will look much better on you.

   Synonyms:

   take in

5. (transitive) To tighten or wind in (a rope, slack, etc.)
   • The reel automatically took up the slack.

   Synonyms:

   take in

6. (transitive) To occupy; to consume (space or time).
   • The books on finance take up three shelves.
   • All my time is taken up with looking after the kids.
7. (transitive) To take, to assume (one’s appointed or intended place).
   • She took up her post at the foot of the stairs.
8. (transitive) To begin doing (an activity) on a regular basis.
   • I’ve taken up knitting.
   • I wish to take up mathematics.
9. (transitive) To begin functioning in (a role or position), to assume (an office).
   • He took up his post as assistant director last Friday.
10. (transitive) To address or discuss (an issue).
    • Let’s take this up with the manager.
    • While such social effects have not gone entirely unquestioned, most critical work on the topic of childhood innocence […] has focused on the regulation of children's sexual agency. Here, I take up the notion of childhood innocence to examine how, in the US context, it regulates race relations by...2019 February 1, J. C. Garden, “Interrogating innocence: “Childhood” as exclusionary social practice”, in Childhood, volume 26, number 1, page 56
11. (transitive) To accept, to adopt (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.).
    • I never said thank you for taking up our case.1993 December 12, Jim Sheridan, Terry George, In the Name of the Father, spoken by Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis), distributed by Universal Pictures

    Antonyms:

    turn down

12. (transitive) To accept (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.) from.
    • Shall we take them up on their offer to help us move?