| Library / English Dictionary |
TAKE UP
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Pursue or resume
Example:
take up a matter for consideration
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
embark; enter (set out on (an enterprise or subject of study))
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Return to a previous location or condition
Example:
The painting resumed its old condition when we restored it
Synonyms:
resume; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Adopt
Example:
take up new ideas
Synonyms:
fasten on; hook on; latch on; seize on; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
adopt; embrace; espouse; sweep up (take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP
Sense 4
Meaning:
Take up as if with a sponge
Synonyms:
sop up; suck in; take in; take up
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
consume; have; ingest; take; take in (serve oneself to, or consume regularly)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 5
Meaning:
Take out or up with or as if with a scoop
Example:
scoop the sugar out of the container
Synonyms:
lift out; scoop; scoop out; scoop up; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "take up"):
dip (scoop up by plunging one's hand or a ladle below the surface)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 6
Meaning:
Take in, also metaphorically
Example:
She drew strength from the minister's words
Synonyms:
absorb; draw; imbibe; soak up; sop up; suck; suck up; take in; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "take up"):
mop; mop up; wipe up (to wash or wipe with or as if with a mop)
blot (dry (ink) with blotting paper)
sponge up (absorb as if with a sponge)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 7
Meaning:
Take up a liquid or a gas either by adsorption or by absorption
Synonyms:
sorb; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)
Domain category:
chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "take up"):
absorb (become imbued)
adsorb (accumulate (liquids or gases) on the surface)
chemisorb (take up a substance by chemisorption)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 8
Meaning:
Accept
Example:
The cloth takes up the liquid
Synonyms:
take in; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
have; receive (get something; come into possession of)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "take up"):
fuel (take in fuel, as of a ship)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sense 9
Meaning:
Occupy or take on
Example:
strike a pose
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)
Verb group:
fill; occupy; take (assume, as of positions or roles)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 10
Meaning:
Take up and practice as one's own
Synonyms:
adopt; borrow; take over; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
accept; have; take (receive willingly something given or offered)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody
Sense 11
Meaning:
Begin work or acting in a certain capacity, office or job
Example:
start a new job
Synonyms:
start; take up
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "take up"):
take office (assume an office, duty, or title)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 12
Meaning:
Turn one's interest to
Example:
He took up herpetology at the age of fifty
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
turn (channel one's attention, interest, thought, or attention toward or away from something)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s VERB-ing
Sense 13
Meaning:
Take up time or space
Example:
take up the slack
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
Hypernyms (to "take up" is one way to...):
fill; occupy (occupy the whole of)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Context examples:
Cancer cells take up more carbon-11 choline than normal cells, so the pictures can be used to find cancer cells in the body.
(carbon-11 choline PET-CT scan, NCI Dictionary)
My trifling occupations take up my time and amuse me, and I am rewarded for any exertions by seeing none but happy, kind faces around me.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Iobenguane localizes to adrenergic tissue and, in radioiodinated forms, may be used to image or eradicate tumor cells that take up and metabolize norepinephrine.
(Iobenguane I-131, NCI Thesaurus)
You take up a thing so seriously! as if we were going to act three times a week till my father's return, and invite all the country.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Because cancer cells often take up more glucose than normal cells, the pictures can be used to find cancer cells in the body.
(PET scan, NCI Dictionary)
It was most convenient to Emma not to make a direct reply to this assertion; she chose rather to take up her own line of the subject again.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
“Dogger,” said Mr. Dance, “you have a good horse; take up this lad behind you.”
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Very good, sir, I will take up your card.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Of their smaller fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
"Surely you have played with it long enough. It is time to take up life seriously—our life, Martin. Hitherto you have lived solely your own."
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
