soak (up)

verb

Definition of soak (up)next
as in to drink
to take in (something liquid) through small openings this sponge should soak up the spilled juice very nicely

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for soak (up)
  1. drink
  2. absorb
  3. take up
Verb
  • Food and drink There are 12 restaurants and bars within the resort's grounds, ranging from the Lakeview Bar near the lobby to a Persian restaurant and the glamorous Oak Grill Restaurant by the Hollywood Pool.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Nov. 2026
  • As holiday season approaches, the TIME team has pulled out a selection of 10 best food and drink items from the list that would make a perfect gift for the food connoisseurs and cooking enthusiasts in your life.
    — TIME Staff, Time, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of drink
Verb
  • The scale-rich designs absorbed sudden, violent impacts without buckling, offered a massive range of tunable stiffness, and successfully cushioned delicate objects embedded deep inside them.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 12 Nov. 2026
  • The state can also avoid large increases in uncompensated care that hospitals may not be able to absorb as Medicaid supplemental payments to hospitals have also been cut.
    — Stan Soloway, Boston Herald, 11 Nov. 2026
Definition of absorb
Verb
  • But woodpeckers don’t live in Hawaii, where biologists are investigating a curious bird that takes up a similar ecological niche—with its own unique twist.
    — Margherita Bassi, Popular Science, 5 Nov. 2026
  • The Pacific Legal Group, a law firm that specializes in property rights cases, is backing the Maryland landowners in the legal battle and urged the Supreme Court to take up the case.
    — Jack Birle, The Washington Examiner, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of take up
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

soaks (up)
soak (up)
so-and-so
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Soak (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/soak%20%28up%29. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gauntlet

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All