View synonyms for uptake

uptake

[ uhp-teyk ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

apprehension; understanding or comprehension; mental grasp:
quick on the uptake.
an act or instance of taking up; a lifting:
the uptake of fertilizer by machines.
Also called take-up. Machinery. a pipe or passage leading upward from below, as for conducting smoke or a current of air.
Physiology. absorption.

uptake

/ ˈʌpˌteɪk /

a pipe, shaft, etc, that is used to convey smoke or gases, esp one that connects a furnace to a chimney
mining another term for upcast
taking up or lifting up
the act of accepting or taking up something on offer or available
quick on the uptake informal.
quick to understand or learn
slow on the uptake informal.
slow to understand or learn

Origin of uptake¹

1810–20; up- + take; compare take-up

But it shows that the Romney team is pretty quick on the uptake.

It is too early to tell, but we are hopeful to see if there is an uptake in sales given this recent exposure.

Those drugs are SSRIs—serotonin uptake inhibitors—and they spin their mood magic by elevating levels of serotonin in the brain.

"Say 'at it is," cried Jess, who was quicker in the uptake than her daughter.

And in that look old Fanny, slow in the uptake though she undoubtedly was, read a tremendous piece of news.

The radiobiologist then attempts to interpret the accumulated evidence of uptake of radionuclides.

Comparison of the resulting oxygen uptake with glycerol and with glycerol plus catalase is shown in Figure 11.

He appreciated the fact that the other was, to use an American colloquialism, "quick on the uptake."

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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