to take up arms
16
7.7
- phrasal verb
:
tomar las armas
- Would we not be willing to take up arms if necessary to defend the right to vote?
- take up arms in defense
- take up arms to defend
- willing to take up arms
And in some places, like Iraq or Libya, they're able to take up arms to resist this effort.
- And in some places, like Iraq or Libya, they're able to take up arms to resist this effort.
- Spanish and Portuguese civilians, militias and ex soldiers began taking up arms against the hated French invader.
- And even if there was lots of chaos and even if there was, you know, shock and surprise by this initial attack, they they, they, they took up arms and defended and, and fought back.
- David Brooks recently quoted Margaret Thatcher who declared quote When good has to be upheld, when evil has to be overcome, Britain will take up arms.
- I mean, it's, it's like revolution by any means necessary and we will take up arms and.
Examples
-
Out of that same love, women took up arms to defend and protect when men couldn't.
Blog text (17) -
Splinter groups of the Muslim Brotherhood took up arms against the Egyptian government in 1992.
Academic text (2000) -
Would you take up arms again?
-
I say the time has come to take up arms in our defense.
-
Soldiers and citizens alike have taken up arms to defend their land and families.
-
I fought in the last war, and I would unhesitatingly take up arms against anybody that attacks this country.
Academic text (1997) -
We must take up arms with our defender Lord Moray.
-
When the crisis occurred, local governments called upon the "Minuteman" to take up arms.
Academic text (1991) -
Serbs living in Croatia took up arms without delay.
Academic text (1994) -
Citizens have to take up arms to protect their homes from invaders.
Synonyms
274
3.4
To start fighting in a war between countries or groups
76
8.0
To start a fight against those in power
69
5.8
Join others to fight against those in power
5
6.4
Begin attacking or acting aggressively to gain an advantage
5
7.9
To begin fighting by using weapons against an enemy
Antonyms
How Violent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to begin fighting' is directly derivable from combining 'take up' (to begin or assume, as in taking up a role or habit) with 'arms' (weapons): a learner who knows these constituents can infer starting to carry/use weapons to fight. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g., French 'prendre les armes', Spanish 'tomar las armas') and follows regular verb + object semantics, making it transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Take up arms comes from a simple, literal picture: people would take up or pick up their arms, meaning weapons, and go to fight. That's why it now means 'to begin fighting' or to prepare to fight.