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Glite Dictionary
🎤 To begin speaking 💃 To start dancing
to take the floor

to take the floor

1 3.7
Stand up and walk onto the dance floor to dance
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : salir a bailar
  • When they finish drinking their water, the dancers take the floor again, the caller shuffling her note cards.

Examples

  • Now taking the floor, the Harmon Hornets!

    Porky's Revenge (1985)

  • As the music started, everyone in the hall began to take the floor and dance joyfully.

  • However, that Hornets team was a little different from the one that will take the floor Saturday night.

    Blog text (23)

  • Come on, step to the side, now go to the polls # # More, little mama, keep on your toes # # Stop in the stop or not, it's cold # # Let me get my dance on, let me take the floor # # Take the floor, take the floor # #

    Max Keeble's Big Move (2001)

  • Come on, step to the side, now go to the polls # # More, little mama, keep on your toes # # Stop in the stop or not, it's cold # # Let me get my dance on, let me take the floor # # Take the floor, take the floor # #

    Max Keeble's Big Move (2001)

  • Come on, step to the side, now go to the polls # # More, little mama, keep on your toes # # Stop in the stop or not, it's cold # # Let me get my dance on, let me take the floor # # Take the floor, take the floor # #

    Max Keeble's Big Move (2001)

  • Come on, step to the side, now go to the polls # # More, little mama, keep on your toes # # Stop in the stop or not, it's cold # # Let me get my dance on, let me take the floor # # Take the floor, take the floor # #

    Max Keeble's Big Move (2001)

  • I'll take the floor.

    Divergent (2014)

  • At the wedding reception, it was time for the couple to take the floor for their first dance together.

  • The dance instructor called out for the students to take the floor and show what they had learned.

Synonyms

to dance
vsto take the floor
579 1.0

To move quickly and lightly from side to side or up and down

is specifically about standing up and walking onto the party area
to cut a rug
vsto take the floor
  • Archaic
6 8.4

To dance with a lot of energy and have fun

is mainly about beginning by going onto the party area to move
to hit the dance floor
vsto take the floor
  • Informal
2 3.9

To start dancing at a party or club

is about standing up and walking onto the party area to move
to boogie on down
vsto take the floor
  • Informal
1 8.8

To dance in a lively way to music

is focused on physically going onto the party area before moving

How Willing

to take the floor
1 3.7

Surface Forms

take the floor infinitive
taking the floor present participle
takes the floor third person singular
took the floor past
taken the floor past participle

Morphology

take + the + floor

The meaning 'to stand up and begin speaking' is partially derivable from 'take' (assume/occupy) combined with 'floor' when understood as the right/opportunity to address an assembly, so learners who know both senses can often guess the meaning. However, the institutional sense of 'floor' is somewhat idiomatic and register-specific and may not be known to all B1 learners without prior exposure, so the expression is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Take the floor comes from the simple image of stepping onto a dance floor to begin dancing; to take the floor is to claim that space and start moving, which is why it means 'to stand up and dance'.