Word.ws English Dictionary

taking the heat

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

Meaning of take the heat

Verb

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

  1. (informal) To take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences.
    • If this decision turns out to be a bad one, I'll take the heat for it.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take, heat.
    • I can take the heat, baby, best believe
      That's the moment I shine2023 May 25, Dua Lipa, Caroline Ailin, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, “Dance the Night”, in Barbie the Album, performed by Dua Lipa

Questions about taking the heat

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

Words near taking the heat in the dictionary

  1. taking the fifth
  2. taking the front seat
  3. taking the game to
  4. taking the gap
  5. taking the gilt off the gingerbread
  6. taking the heat
  7. taking the helm
  8. taking the initiative
  9. taking the knee
  10. taking the l
  11. taking the law into one's hands

Source and license

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