Word.ws English Dictionary

took someone up short

took someone up short is the simple past of take someone up short.

Meaning of take someone up short

Verb

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

  1. (dated) To check someone or give them a curt answer.

Questions about took someone up short

What is took someone up short the simple past of?
Took someone up short is the simple past of take someone up short.

Words near took someone up short in the dictionary

  1. took some doing
  2. took someone at their word
  3. took someone down the garden path
  4. took someone for all they've got
  5. took someone to the grave
  6. took someone up short
  7. took someone's arm
  8. took someone's breath away
  9. took someone's fancy
  10. took someone's head off
  11. took someone's life

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took someone up short (page history and authors); take someone up short (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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