take up
verb- To pick up.
- To remove (a ground or floor surface, including the bed of a road or the track of a railway). · We're going to have to take up the floorboards.
- To absorb (a liquid), to soak up.
- To shorten (a garment), especially by hemming. · If we take up the sleeves a bit, that shirt will look much better on you.
- To tighten or wind in (a rope, slack, etc.) · The reel automatically took up the slack.
- 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.
- To take, to assume (one’s appointed or intended place). · She took up her post at the foot of the stairs.
- To begin doing (an activity) on a regular basis. · I’ve taken up knitting.· I wish to take up mathematics.
From the library
Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.
Look well, O Wolves!” And the anxious mothers would take up the call: “Look--look well, O Wolves!”
Jane, Ruby, Josie, Charlie, and Moody Spurgeon, not being troubled with the stirrings of ambition, were content to take up the Second Class work.
The pope heaped attentions upon Rospigliosi and Spada, conferred upon them the insignia of the cardinalate, and induced them to arrange their affairs and take up their residence at Rome.
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