Word.ws English Dictionary

taking five

taking five is the present participle and gerund of take five.

Meaning of take five

Verb

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

  1. (Canada, US, informal) To take a short, typically five-minute, break from some activity.
    • Hey, stop fighting! Take five, people!

Questions about taking five

What is taking five the present participle and gerund of?
Taking five is the present participle and gerund of take five.

Words near taking five in the dictionary

  1. taking down a peg
  2. taking easy
  3. taking effect
  4. taking exception
  5. taking fire
  6. taking five
  7. taking flight
  8. taking for
  9. taking for a drive
  10. taking for a ride
  11. taking for a spin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking five (page history and authors); take five (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “taking five.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taking_five. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.