took on

past tense of take on
1
as in faced
to enter into contest or conflict with will take on his chief opponent in the next political debate

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

2
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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for took on
Verb
  • By 2024, the Red Sea faced an unprecedented shipping crisis and a decline in traffic.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 22 Mar. 2025
  • Tesla shares have dropped 37 percent so far in 2025 as Musk has faced criticism and protests for some of his political remarks and actions.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 22 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • The Paycheck Protection Program was established in 2020 to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the coronavirus pandemic, and ended in May 2021.
    Kevin Sabet, Newsweek, 24 Mar. 2025
  • Toma Sparks and Justin Jenkins are still employed by the Johnson City Police Department.
    Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Three years later, Stack borrowed another $60 million from GE Capital, this time to buy out his investors.
    Jemima McEvoy, Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024
  • The brothers learned as teenagers that their father had borrowed money through a federal program to drill for wells, and wound up $4 million in debt, including interest, when the wells failed, with the land pledged as collateral.
    Amy Feldman, Forbes, 21 Dec. 2024
Verb
  • Even when requests are eventually approved, HR employees have sometimes encountered additional roadblocks in actually sending tentative job offers, or had the files get locked again after viewing them.
    Quil Lawrence, NPR, 5 Mar. 2025
  • The company encountered issues with both of the vehicle's elements — its Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage — and called the launch off after holding the countdown clock at T-40 seconds.
    Mike Wall, Space.com, 4 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Manager Craig Counsell hired Quintin Berry and Jose Javier to be his base coaches for a reason.
    Sahadev Sharma, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2025
  • Separately, the Health Department hired the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors to audit Perkins.
    Katie Mettler, Baltimore Sun, 11 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • There was even a handwritten letter from my birth mom, written the day I was adopted.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 22 Mar. 2025
  • Somewhere there is a happy medium to be found between the overbroad rules of the previous administration and the complete absence of rules for domestic companies that the present administration has now adopted.
    Jay Adkisson, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Our two lovers in this timeless classic are playboy Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant) and singer Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr), who meet aboard a luxurious ocean liner and feel an undeniable connection—despite both being engaged to other people.
    Travis Bean, Forbes, 15 Mar. 2025
  • The Trail Blazers never re-engaged the Heat before accepting the Milwaukee Bucks’ offer later that offseason.
    Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 14 Mar. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Took on.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/took%20on. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.

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