Word.ws English Dictionary

taking lightly

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

Meaning of take lightly

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To treat casually, without seriousness or worry.
    • Following England's opening-day win over Wales in Cardiff, Martin Johnson's men headed into the Twickenham contest full of confidence but with a warning from their manager not to take the Italians lightly.2011 February 12, Mark Orlovac, “England 59-13 Italy”, in BBC
    Synonyms:
    make light of
    Antonyms:
    take seriously

Questions about taking lightly

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

Words near taking lightly in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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