Dictionary

uptake en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈʌpteɪk/
• (US) audio

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”).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Understanding; comprehension.
2. (countable, uncountable) Absorption, especially of food or nutrient by an organism.
3. (countable, uncountable) The act of lifting or taking up.
4. (countable, dated, uncountable) A chimney.
   • The design provides for continuous smoke troughs of reinforced concrete, vented by circular uptakes, and the turntable area will be covered, using precast reinforced concrete bars down both sides of each track. 1951 January, “Notes and News: New Roof for Cricklewood M.P.D.”, in Railway Magazine, page 67:
5. (countable, dated, uncountable) The upcast pipe from the smokebox of a steam boiler towards the chimney.

Forms

Deriveds

reuptake · quick on the uptake · slow on the uptake · photouptake · on the uptake · radiouptake · biouptake

Translations (9)

es captación (absorption) · ro absorbție (absorption) · es absorbimiento (absorption) · it assorbimento (absorption) · hu felvétel (absorption) · es imbibición (absorption) · es absorbencia (absorption) · hu felszívódás (absorption) · es absorción (absorption)

uptake en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ʌpˈteɪk/

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”).

Meanings

1. (archaic) To take up, to lift.
   • He hearkned to his reason, and the childe Vptaking, to the Palmer gaue to beare [...]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
2. To absorb, as food or a drug by an organism.
3. To accept and begin to use, as a new practice.

Forms

Deriveds

uptaker