took up

past tense of take up
1
2
as in drank
to take in (something liquid) through small openings the soil was so dry that the plant seemed to take up the much-needed water instantly

Synonyms & Similar Words

3

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of took up María Elvira Salazar, the Florida representative, recently took up the cause of a Cuban rapper named Eliéxer Márquez Duany. Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025 The winger spent time with family and took up new sports in golf and padel during his downtime. Roshane Thomas, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2025 None of them took up the offer from the production team. Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 8 Sep. 2025 Flaws in medical devices were not a new concept that the 2023 guidance took up. Christian Espinosa, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025 The documents are dated July 17 and July 21, respectively — more than a week before the City Council took up the mayor’s request to declare the three parcels surplus property. Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Aug. 2025 Fast forward to 1983, and another lab took up the mystery. Pranjal Malewar, New Atlas, 10 Aug. 2025 The other astronauts took up the name and in 2017, the International Astronomical Union, which governs official space nomenclature, broke its rule requiring features or objects named after people to to be named posthumously, and recognized Mount Marilyn. Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 9 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for took up
Verb
  • The initial launch will aim for speeds near Mach 2, but project officials say later versions could reach Mach 4 or even Mach 5, the lower edge of true hypersonic velocity, once range restrictions are lifted.
    Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 29 Sep. 2025
  • Near the climax of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics—a living diorama of British history, directed by the filmmaker Danny Boyle—a model house was lifted away to reveal Berners-Lee.
    Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • All meals included water, but participants drank similar amounts regardless of spiciness.
    Stephanie Brown, Verywell Health, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Indigenous cultures in the region placed high value in cacao as a sacred crop, exchanged as a form of currency and made into a frothy, warm bitter beverage drank at key events in social and religious life, Chocolate Affairs Magazine said.
    Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 25 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • With an airbrush borrowed from his job at an ad agency, Man Ray would blast droplets of gouache onto board or heavy paper and use stencils to organize the spray.
    Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2025
  • The robber barons and telecom wildcatters borrowed to build their empires, and dragged their financiers down with them when the music stopped.
    Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 23 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • The scale is staggering, even for a company that’s raised a record amount of private market cash and seen its valuation swell to $500 billion.
    MacKenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 24 Sep. 2025
  • The discovery renews scrutiny of Bolton’s handling of sensitive national security information and echoes long-standing concerns first raised during a contentious legal battle over his 2020 memoir.
    Robert Alexander, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Our institutions are failing us — either corrupt or underfunded, gutted and useless — and we’re absorbed with stories of characters that manage to save themselves, and on their own terms.
    Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2025
  • Once absorbed by the body, it is converted into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which plays a role in energy production, cellular communication, DNA repair, and more.
    Jamie Ducharme, Health, 26 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • For too long, histories of the war have emphasized its leaders, men like Thomas Müntzer in Thuringia, adopted by Friedrich Engels and then by the East German regime as a revolutionary hero to rival the reactionary colossus Luther.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 25 Sep. 2025
  • The firm said that while robotics and automation are being adopted at a rapid clip for warehousing and logistics use cases, chief supply chain officers said that their organizations don’t have the internal expertise needed to reap the full benefits of emerging technologies.
    Meghan Hall, Sourcing Journal, 25 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • As a member of the practice squad, Chisena can be elevated to the game-day roster three times before being added to the 53-man roster.
    Mike Kaye, Charlotte Observer, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Players can be elevated only three teams by a team in one season.
    Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 22 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • But Kelvin Wheelies closed in 1983 and has been slowly getting swallowed by trees and shrubs ever since.
    Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 24 Sep. 2025
  • Here, slowly being swallowed by vegetation and worn down by time, are gigantic mausoleums, vast underground cisterns, temples, imposing city walls and a breathtaking theater perched, like Machu Picchu, on a hilltop that offers views stretching for miles all around.
    Barry Neild, CNN Money, 23 Sep. 2025

Cite this Entry

“Took up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/took%20up. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.

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