Definify.com

Definition 2024

take_up

take up

See also: takeup and take-up

English

Noun

take up ‎(plural take-ups)

(machinery) That which takes up or tightens; specifically, a device in a sewing machine for drawing up the slack thread as the needle rises, in completing a stitch.
Acceptance (of a proposal, offer, request, etc.).
- 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
  In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.

Alternative forms

take-up

Translations

machinery: that which takes up or tightens

Verb

take up ‎(third-person singular simple present takes up, present participle taking up, simple past took up, past participle taken up)

(transitive) To pick up.
- 1600, The Bible (Authorised Version), Mark 2:11:
  I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
The reel automatically took up the slack.
- 1865, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
  Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking.
(transitive) To begin doing (an activity) on a regular basis.

I've taken up knitting.

I wish to take up mathematics.
- 2004, Jane Powell, Linda Svendsen, Bungalow: The Ultimate Arts & Crafts Home, page 44:
  Each of the things he took up, he took up with passion and intensity
(transitive) To address (an issue).
Let's take this up with the manager.
(transitive) To occupy; to consume (space or time).

The books on finance take up three shelves.

All my time is taken up with looking after the kids.
(transitive, sewing) To shorten by hemming.
If we take up the sleeves a bit, that shirt will look much better on you.
(transitive, with on) To accept (a proposal, offer, request, etc.) from.
Shall we take them up on their offer to help us move?
(intransitive) To resume.
let's take up where we left off
To implement, to employ, to put into use.
- 2008, BBC News, Iolo ap Dafydd Wood homes 'solution' to shortage
  "So I'd imagine if they were to take up this system, or a similar system, we should be able to build quicker."