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Glite Dictionary
🎸 To start an activity ⏳ To use space or time 🥄 To lift or pick up 📍 To occupy a place 💧 To absorb
to take up

to take up

179 3.5
To use a large part of time, space, or attention
  • phrasal verb
  • /teɪk ʌp/
translation icon : ocupar
  • The couch takes up a lot of space in the small living room.
  • take up time
  • take up space
  • take up too much

And it's just being comfortable with taking up space and expressing yourself.

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Examples

  • Campus safety remains a primary concern that takes up a significant amount of administrative time.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Just something that's small that won't take up your whole week.

  • And I found that what they take up mostly is time.

  • How much space does dark matter take up to normal matter?

  • You take up space and you slow me down.

    Waterworld (1995)

  • But The thing is, the case brief takes up so much time.

  • I'm not going to take up too much of your time.

  • These ones take up twice as much rack space though.

  • The cooking and the mountain biking took up our whole day.

  • He's so huge he seems to take up all the space in the tiny room.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

to take
vsto take up
∞ 1.0

Need a certain amount of time or space

describes using a measured amount of time, space, or attention rather than needing it
to occupy
vsto take up
92 3.3

To fill space or time

uses a specific amount of time, space, or attention rather than covering
to use up
vsto take up
69 2.7

To finish all of something so nothing is left

occupies a portion of time, space, or attention without exhausting it
to eat up
vsto take up
  • Informal
23 3.1

Use up money or time quickly

uses an amount of time, space, or attention rather than consuming it fully

Antonyms

to free up space
2 3.2

To make more room by removing or moving things

How Much

to monopolize
  • US
22 6.7
to use up
69 2.7
to take up
179 3.5
to occupy
92 3.3

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

take + up

The meaning 'to begin or start an activity' is only partly derivable from combining 'take' (to grasp/assume) with 'up' (a directional/particle), because the sense is a metaphorical extension of 'lifting into action' rather than a literal composition. As a common phrasal-verb pattern in English, it is somewhat guessable but not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure, and cross-linguistic equivalents vary.

Etymology

Take up comes from the image of something being taken into a space: the action take plus the word up make you imagine a big sofa that takes up the whole room or a hobby that fills your free time. That's why it means 'to use or occupy' a particular amount of time, space, or attention.