take up

Meanings

nountake up (countable and uncountable, plural take ups)

plural take ups · alternative take one up

alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of take-up.
1 more example
In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.
2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74

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

present singular third person takes up · participle present taking up · past took up · participle past taken up · alternative take one up

To lift; to raise.
1. transitiveTo pick up.
  I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 2:11
  1 more example
  Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: […]
  1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 19
2. transitiveTo remove (a ground or floor surface, including the bed of a road or the track of a railway).
  We're going to have to take up the floorboards.
  3 more examples
  It is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that a temporary writ of injunction issue, enjoining said defendant and all persons acting under or for it, from in any manner taking up, disturbing or interfering with the road-bed and track of said plaintiff so as to prevent the passage of cars thereon
  1876, Supreme Court of Iowa, June Term 1876 court record, “The Davenport Central Railway Co. v. The Davenport Gas Light Co., Appeal from Scott Circuit Court”, published in The American Railway Reports, Volume 14
  They had pickaxes in their hands and wore corduroy trousers and that little leather band below the knee that goes by the astonishing name of “York-to-London.” They seemed to be working with peculiar vehemence, so that I stopped and asked one what they were doing. “We are taking up Picadilly,” he said to me.
  1915 April, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], “Taking Up Picadilly”, in Fifty-one Tales, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, →OCLC
  Passenger traffic was subsequently discontinued, and early in the recent war a considerable amount of the permanent way at the Treforest end of the railway was taken up.
  1946 January and February, “Notes and News: Demolition of Rhydyfelin Viaduct”, in Railway Magazine, page 52
3. transitiveTo absorb (a liquid), to soak up.
4. transitivebusinessTo shorten (a garment), especially by hemming.
  If we take up the sleeves a bit, that shirt will look much better on you.
  Synonyms: take in
5. transitiveTo tighten or wind in (a rope, slack, etc.)
  The reel automatically took up the slack.
  Synonyms: take in
transitiveTo occupy; to consume (space or time).
The books on finance take up three shelves.
3 more examples
All my time is taken up with looking after the kids.
She is popular with passengers as an all-weather vessel, but rather the reverse with yachtsmen as she has at times proved somewhat unwieldy, and certainly takes up a good deal of space in the narrow channels.
1956 February, R. C. Riley, “The Lymington Railway and Isle of Wight Ferry”, in Railway Magazine, page 82
Can't understand / Why we treat each other in this way / Taking up time / With the silly, silly games we play / We've got our love / And no matter how it's said or done
1983, Maze, “We Are One”, in We Are One
transitiveTo take, to assume (one’s appointed or intended place).
She took up her post at the foot of the stairs.
To set about doing or dealing with (something).
1. transitiveTo begin doing (an activity) on a regular basis.
  I’ve taken up knitting.
  4 more examples
  I wish to take up mathematics.
  He became so studious that he gave up any semblance of a social life, and had taken up the use of strong alcohol and Valium.
  1986, Craig G. Harris, “Weekend Plans”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 137
  Recently, I have taken up the double bass again, but because time and neglect erode ability, calluses turn soft, and muscle memory fades, I need to woodshed (practice) to get back into shape and build up my chops.
  1999 June, Al Stevens, “Jukebox: Covering the Basses”, in Dr. Dobb's Journal, volume 24, number 6, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, Inc., →ISSN, page 115
  Each of the things he took up, he took up with passion and intensity
  2004, Jane Powell, Linda Svendsen, Bungalow: The Ultimate Arts & Crafts Home, →ISBN, page 44
2. transitiveTo begin functioning in (a role or position), to assume (an office).
  He took up his post as assistant director last Friday.
3. transitiveTo address or discuss (an issue).
  Let’s take this up with the manager.
  1 more example
  While such social effects have not gone entirely unquestioned, most critical work on the topic of childhood innocence […] has focused on the regulation of children's sexual agency. Here, I take up the notion of childhood innocence to examine how, in the US context, it regulates race relations by producing a particular "childhood" that perpetuates White supremacy.
  2019 February 1, J. C. Garden, “Interrogating innocence: “Childhood” as exclusionary social practice”, in Childhood, volume 26, number 1, page 56
4. transitiveTo accept, to adopt (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.).
  I never said thank you for taking up our case.
  1993 December 12, Jim Sheridan, Terry George, In the Name of the Father, spoken by Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis), distributed by Universal Pictures
  Antonyms: turn down
5. transitiveTo accept (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.) from.
  Shall we take them up on their offer to help us move?
6. transitiveTo join in (saying something).
  They took up the cry of their oppressed compatriots.
7. ambitransitivetransitiveTo resume, to return to something that was interrupted.
  Let’s take up where we left off.
8. transitiveTo implement, to employ, to put into use.
  So I’d imagine if they were to take up this system, or a similar system, we should be able to build quicker.
  2008 April 23, Iolo ap Dafydd, “Wood homes ‘solution’ to shortage”, in BBC News
9. CanadatransitiveTo review the solutions to a test or other assessment with a class.
  You have 30 minutes for the quiz. We’ll take up the answers at 1 o'clock.
  2 more examples
  Also, the grade 12’s in the class were also called down to the cafeteria from 9:30 am to about 9:50 am, so they missed class when I took up some of the worksheets.
  2015, Mr. Bawa, Mr. Bawa's Semester 1 Classes at St. Mary's
  Can someone in CSCC37 (mustafa's tutorial!) email me the solution to the midterm? (the tutorial right after the midterm where he took up the solutions)
  2018, /u/CharmingHistorian3, Mustafa's C37 midterm solution?
10. AustraliaNew ZealandtransitiveTo begin occupying and working (a plot of uncultivated land), to break in.
11. UKtransitiveTo pay off, to clear (a debt, loan, mortgage, etc.).
archaictransitiveTo arrest (a person).
The police took up the suspect.
Synonyms: take in
transitiveTo reprove or reproach (a person).
1 more example
[…] he talked strangely of Mr. Law […] wearing a pair of stockings that a ploughman would not have picked off a dunghill; upon which last expression I took him up for saying that Mr. Law carried his expression beyond truth, when he himself exposed what he thought wrong with so much vivacity, and Dr. Hartley said that he thought there I had him; […]
1856, John Byrom, Richard Parkinson, Francis Robert Raines, The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom, page 114
transitiveTo begin to support or patronize, to sponsor (a person), to adopt as protégé.