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
  • Giovanni drank himself into an early grave.
    Rachel Linden, PEOPLE, 4 Oct. 2025
  • Marathon runners collapsing at the finish line often drank too much plain water, not too little.
    Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Inspired by its menswear heritage, Testoni borrowed from the boys for a key part of its spring ’26 women’s shoe lineup.
    Martino Carrera, Footwear News, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The plant and equipment bubble should have been spotted because of all the money that was borrowed.
    Jim Cramer, CNBC, 28 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Investors saw this in quarterly earnings reports from Club holdings Meta Platforms, Amazon, and other Big Tech names, which raised their capital expenditures.
    Morgan Chittum, CNBC, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Hong Kong’s financial secretary Paul Chan said Sunday that initial public offerings had raised nearly 150 billion Hong Kong dollars so far this year, ranking top globally.
    Jason Ma, Fortune, 30 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
  • Research suggests that adopted children tend to benefit from knowing their birth family, their history, and their birth parents’ reasons for seeking adoption.
    Nicole Chung, The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Fox News affiliate, KMSP-TV, revealed that he was previously convicted of sending explicit images to a 15-year-old and was reportedly adopted from Liberia at age five.
    Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 2 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The interiors are a mix of cozy and elevated, from a drawing room that opens straight to the gardens to a kitchen and breakfast room complete with a wine cellar.
    Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Christensen was the third choice at right guard Sunday, watching as the Panthers sent in Brandon Walton, a practice-squad player who’d been elevated Saturday, to replace Chandler Zavala when Zavala left with a knee injury in the first half.
    Joseph Person, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Art concerns particularities of human existence framed by the big picture, but the picture has swallowed the frame.
    Kate Colby October 2, Literary Hub, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Reeves and Winter are often swallowed up by the bottomless void their characters occupy, with very little room to let loose and play.
    Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 29 Sep. 2025

Cite this Entry

“Took up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/took%20up. Accessed 5 Oct. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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