take five

idiomatic phrase

variants or take ten

US, informal

: to take a brief break (as from work)

They're locked in a fierce debate over the last scene of their film … when camp director and Hollywood veteran Sam Dalton finally orders them to take five.

—Megan Myers

Parry Aftab, the executive director of WiredSafety.org, offers these tips for dealing with troubling messages. … Take five. Instead of replying to a message that upsets you, step away and do something you enjoy for five minutes.

—Nicole Iorio

I could see his anger had nearly boiled over. … Coach Colby, who ran the defense, was the brave soul who stepped in. "Take ten," he said, placing a hand on Orlando's chest. "Cool off. Then suit up and meet at the fifty-yard line. Got it?"

—Brandon Terrell

Examples of take five in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That year was a hallmark for Antioch police, who solved all seven of the city’s homicides, though one of them took five years and a massive gang investigation to make arrests. —Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 24 Jan. 2026

At another end of the spectrum a random email may take five minutes to write, and less than a minute for the recipient to read. —New Atlas, 23 Jan. 2026

Natural gas takes five years, while something like a nuclear plant can take over a decade to permit, construct and operate. —Josh Brown,sean Russo, CNBC, 22 Jan. 2026

Since the Highland Court apartment fire took five lives last year, Lipski says the fire department and the Department of Neighborhood Services have been working to identify all the multi-unit buildings in Milwaukee that don't have sprinklers. —Drake Bentley, jsonline.com, 21 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1916, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for take five

• overdrive
• alive
• archive
• arrive
• beehive
• connive
• contrive
• deprive
• derive
• revive
• survive
• dive