uptake
English
Etymology
From Middle English uptaken (“to take up, lift”), partial calque of earlier Middle English upnimen (“to take up, lift”), equivalent to up- + take. Compare Swedish upptaga, uppta (“to take up”).
Pronunciation
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
uptake (countable and uncountable, plural uptakes)
- Understanding; comprehension.
- Absorption, especially of food or nutrient by an organism.
- The act of lifting or taking up.
- (dated) A chimney.
- (dated) The upcast pipe from the smokebox of a steam boiler towards the chimney.
Derived terms
- quick or slow on the uptake
- reuptake
Translations
absorption
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Verb
uptake (third-person singular simple present uptakes, present participle uptaking, simple past uptook, past participle uptaken)
- (archaic) To take up, to lift.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- He hearkned to his reason, and the childe / Vptaking, to the Palmer gaue to beare [...].
- To absorb, as food or a drug by an organism.
- To accept and begin to use, as a new practice.
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
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- English terms prefixed with up-
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