take on the chin

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English

Verb

take (something) on the chin

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To accept without flinching or complaining.
    • 2013 Sept. 20, Holly Baxter, "Is masturbating in public a laughing matter?," The Guardian (retrieved 6 Jan 2014):
      Elsewhere in Sweden recently, two underage girls pressed charges when a teenage boy exposed himself to them at a lake. The court decided, despite the victims' testimonies, that the offence was "not of a sexual nature" and dismissed it. But I'm guessing the girls didn't push for molestation charges because they were censorious prudes who would grow into knowing how to take such behaviour on the chin – they felt genuinely threatened, they took their concerns to court, and they deserved more than being told that they'd misread the situation all along.

See also