Word.ws English Dictionary

takes a dive

takes a dive is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take a dive.

Meaning of take a dive

Verb

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

  1. To decline rapidly.
    • Other broad market gauges took even steeper dives, with the Standard & Poor's 500, which includes financial stocks, falling 9.93%.2008 December 1, John Curran, “The Recession Is Made Official — and Stocks Take a Dive”, in Time
  2. (idiomatic) To feign a knockout in order to lose intentionally.
    • I decided there could be a nice bit of irony in a situation where a boxer, with a crown his for the taking, deliberately takes a dive to get revenge on the man he hates, who is betting everything on the boxer's victory.1950, Jules Archer, I Sell What I Write, page 44
  3. (idiomatic) To lose or fail intentionally.

Questions about takes a dive

What is takes a dive the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Takes a dive is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take a dive.

Words near takes a dive in the dictionary

  1. takes a crap
  2. takes a decision
  3. takes a deep breath
  4. takes a dim view of
  5. takes a dip
  6. takes a dive
  7. takes a dookie
  8. takes a dump
  9. takes a fall
  10. takes a fall out of
  11. takes a fancy to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: takes a dive (page history and authors); take a dive (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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Cite this entry: “takes a dive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/takes_a_dive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.