take time

idiom

1

: to need or require time to happen or be done

You have to be patient. Things like this take time.

It may take some time for the medication to wear off.

The meeting won't take too much time.

This job is easy and will take no time at all.

2

or take the time : to use an amount of time in order to do something important

They never took the time to get to know her.

I took some time to think about it, and my answer is still "no."

Examples of take time in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

According to a survey from the American Medical Association, physicians' offices spend an average of 12 hours per week seeking approval for services from insurers, administrative hurdles that critics say take time away from providing care. —Mary Cunningham, CBS News, 23 June 2025

The investigation into whether her death was a tragedy or a crime will take time. —Nuri Kino, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 June 2025

More nuanced incidents do, of course, need to take time, but there was little good reason for there to be such a delay between a case concerning the race winner being heard and the resulting decision being announced. —Luke Smith, New York Times, 19 June 2025

This will take time and may impact the mission's timeline, which would have seen Rosalind Franklin head to Mars in 2028. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 12 June 2025

Rhymes for take time

• aforetime
• allozyme
• anytime
• christmastime
• cybercrime
• dinnertime
• guggenheim
• isozyme
• lysozyme
• maritime
• mesenchyme
• overtime