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

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Noun

uptake (countable and uncountable, plural uptakes)

1. Understanding; comprehension.
2. Absorption, especially of food or nutrient by an organism.
3. The act of lifting or taking up.
4. (dated) A chimney.
5. (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

• Hungarian: felvétel (hu), felszívódás (hu)
• Italian: assorbimento (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: absorbție (ro) f

Verb

uptake (third-person singular simple present uptakes, present participle uptaking, simple past uptook, past participle uptaken)

1. (archaic) To take up, to lift.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ii:

     He hearkned to his reason, and the childe / Vptaking, to the Palmer gaue to beare [...].

2. To absorb, as food or a drug by an organism.
3. To accept and begin to use, as a new practice.

Anagrams

• take up, take-up, takeup