Word.ws English Dictionary

takes one for the team

takes one for the team is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take one for the team.

Meaning of take one for the team

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To accept some chore, hardship, or punishment for the sake of one's friends or colleagues.
    • [Casey Newton:] Yes, Arijeta, you really did take one for the team on this one, I have to say.2026 March 6, Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, “OpenAI’s Fog of War + Betting on Iran + Hard Fork Review of Slop”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Questions about takes one for the team

What is takes one for the team the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Takes one for the team is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take one for the team.

Words near takes one for the team in the dictionary

  1. takes on strength
  2. takes on the chin
  3. takes on trust
  4. takes on water
  5. takes one day at a time
  6. takes one for the team
  7. takes one to know one
  8. takes one up
  9. takes one's ball and goes home
  10. takes one's business elsewhere
  11. takes one's chance

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: takes one for the team (page history and authors); take one for the team (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 one for the team.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/takes_one_for_the_team. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.