take up with

present singular third person takes up with · participle present taking up with · past took up with · participle past taken up with

1. To form a close relationship with (someone).

   I hear that John has taken up with Jane.

   1 more example

   Frank is an older, middle-class Englishman who has taken up with Johnny, the youngish, married son of his cleaning woman. It is unclear if money changes hands, but Frank is always ready to help out Johnny when he needs it.

   1988 December 25, Michael Bronski, “...And They Called It Puppy Love”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 8

2. To become interested in (something).

   It seems, then, that automobiles and automobiling were on Walter Chrysler's mind for a long time before he took up with this legendary Locomobile

   2001, Vincent Curcio, Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius, page 112

   1 more example

   For although the Queen had ordered a little Equipage of all things neceſſary while I was in her Service, yet my Ideas were wholly taken up with what I ſaw on every ſide of me, and winked at my own Littleneſs as People do at their own Faults.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The King and Queen Make a Progress to the Frontiers. The Author Attends Them. The Manner in which He Leaves the Country Very Particularly Related. He Returns to England.”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), pages 306–307

3. To begin living together with; to lodge with.
4. archaicTo be contented to receive; to receive without opposition; to put up with.
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take, up, take up, with.

   He took up painting with his wife.

   2 more examples

   He took them up with him on his next trip to the mountains.

   He took up the overpayment with his supplier.