Word.ws English Dictionary

took the offensive

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

Meaning of take the offensive

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To attack instead of defending; to be bold and proactive.
    Synonyms:
    go on the offensive

Questions about took the offensive

What is took the offensive the simple past of?
Took the offensive is the simple past of take the offensive.

Words near took the offensive in the dictionary

  1. took the meaning
  2. took the Michael
  3. took the mick
  4. took the mickey
  5. took the micky
  6. took the offensive
  7. took the pee
  8. took the piss
  9. took the place of
  10. took the plunge
  11. took the point

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took the offensive (page history and authors); take the offensive (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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