Word.ws English Dictionary

took someone's name in vain

took someone's name in vain is the simple past of take someone's name in vain.

Meaning of take someone's name in vain

Verb

take someone's name in vain (third-person singular simple present takes someone's name in vain, present participle taking someone's name in vain, simple past took someone's name in vain, past participle taken someone's name in vain)

  1. To speak insultingly about someone, especially behind their back.
    • He never once took her name in vain among the fellows: and she had not been a very good girl, either.1887, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Jack the Fisherman, page 17

Questions about took someone's name in vain

What is took someone's name in vain the simple past of?
Took someone's name in vain is the simple past of take someone's name in vain.

Words near took someone's name in vain in the dictionary

  1. took someone's arm
  2. took someone's breath away
  3. took someone's fancy
  4. took someone's head off
  5. took someone's life
  6. took someone's name in vain
  7. took someone's part
  8. took someone's place
  9. took someone's word for it
  10. took something as it came
  11. took something as read

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took someone's name in vain (page history and authors); take someone's name in vain (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: “took someone's name in vain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/took_someone%27s_name_in_vain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.