Word.ws English Dictionary

whatever it takes

whatever it takes noun: anything, including measures which may be extreme or wrongful, that is required to achieve an objective.

Noun

whatever it takes (uncountable)

  1. (euphemistic, idiomatic, sometimes) Anything, including measures which may be extreme or wrongful, that is required to achieve an objective.
    • "I'll do whatever it takes to win."1997 January 31, Mike Wise, “Intense and Erratic, John Starks Can Still Jump-Start the Knicks”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 Jul 2012
    • [T]he security forces have exhibited few qualms about doing whatever it takes to quiet the streets, including the imprisoning of an estimated 2,000 opposition supporters.2009 August 5, Tony Karon, “A Weakened Ahmadinejad Sworn in for a Second Term”, in Time

Questions about whatever it takes

What does whatever it takes mean?
Whatever it takes means anything, including measures which may be extreme or wrongful, that is required to achieve an objective.
What part of speech is whatever it takes?
Whatever it takes is a noun.

Words near whatever it takes in the dictionary

  1. whatever creams your twinkie
  2. whatever floats your boat
  3. whatever happens, happens
  4. whatever helps you sleep at night
  5. whatever humps your camel
  6. whatever it takes
  7. whatever melts your butter
  8. whatever next
  9. whatever sizzles your bacon
  10. whatever the case may be
  11. whatever tickles your pickle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whatever it takes (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-whatever it takes.ogg.

Cite this entry: “whatever it takes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whatever_it_takes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.