Word.ws English Dictionary

took the fifth

took the fifth is the simple past of take the fifth.

Meaning of take the fifth

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To decline to comment, especially on grounds that it might be incriminating.
    • If you ask me who ate the last of the ice cream, I will simply take the fifth.
    Synonyms:
    plead the Fifth

Verb capitalized: took the Fifth

took the Fifth

  1. (past) simple past of take the Fifth

Questions about took the fifth

What is took the fifth the simple past of?
Took the fifth is the simple past of take the fifth.
What part of speech is took the fifth?
Took the fifth is a verb.

Words near took the fifth in the dictionary

  1. took the coward's way out
  2. took the cure
  3. took the easy way out
  4. took the edge off
  5. took the fall
  6. took the fifth
  7. took the front seat
  8. took the game to
  9. took the gap
  10. took the gilt off the gingerbread
  11. took the heat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took the fifth (page history and authors); took the Fifth (page history and authors); take the fifth (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 the fifth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/took_the_fifth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.