Word.ws English Dictionary

taking liberties

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

Meaning of take liberties

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To act on one's own authority, without asking for permission.
  2. (idiomatic) To behave disrespectfully, especially to make unwanted sexual advances.

Questions about taking liberties

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

Words near taking liberties in the dictionary

  1. taking kindly
  2. taking L's
  3. taking law into one's own hands
  4. taking leave
  5. taking leave of one's senses
  6. taking liberties
  7. taking lightly
  8. taking long
  9. taking lying down
  10. taking matters into one's own hands
  11. taking no for an answer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking liberties (page history and authors); take liberties (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 liberties.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taking_liberties. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.