Word.ws English Dictionary

takes on the chin

takes on the chin is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take on the chin.

Meaning of take on the chin

Verb

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

  1. (UK, idiomatic, transitive) To accept without flinching or complaining.
    • Elsewhere in Sweden recently, two underage girls pressed charges when a teenage boy exposed himself to them at a lake. The court decided, despite the victims' testimonies, that the offence was "not of a sexual nature" and dismissed it. But I'm guessing the girls didn't push for molestation charges...2013 September 20, Holly Baxter, “Is masturbating in public a laughing matter?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2023, retrieved 06 Jan 2014
  2. (US, idiomatic, transitive) To be deeply impacted by something.
    • The situation seems to be designed so the taxpayers take it on the chin no matter what. District residents who vote down a budget believing they are voting against any tax raise still receive higher tax bills.2005 May 20, Robert David Kostoff, My Line Story, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 136

Questions about takes on the chin

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

Words near takes on the chin in the dictionary

  1. takes offense
  2. takes office
  3. takes on
  4. takes on faith
  5. takes on strength
  6. takes on the chin
  7. takes on trust
  8. takes on water
  9. takes one day at a time
  10. takes one for the team
  11. takes one to know one

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: takes on the chin (page history and authors); take on the chin (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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