"take the heat" meaning in English

See take the heat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: takes the heat [present, singular, third-person], taking the heat [participle, present], took the heat [past], taken the heat [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|take<,,took,taken> the heat}} take the heat (third-person singular simple present takes the heat, present participle taking the heat, simple past took the heat, past participle taken the heat)
  1. (informal) To take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences. Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-take_the_heat-en-verb-Gzfexns8 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 83 17 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 80 20 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 85 15
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take, heat. Related terms: take the rap
    Sense id: en-take_the_heat-en-verb-7d0OZjXm

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes the heat",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking the heat",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took the heat",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken the heat",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> the heat"
      },
      "expansion": "take the heat (third-person singular simple present takes the heat, present participle taking the heat, simple past took the heat, past participle taken the heat)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "83 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "80 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "85 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If this decision turns out to be a bad one, I'll take the heat for it.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3:",
          "text": "For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left train operators to 'take the heat' - which they dutifully did, fearful of speaking up and 'biting the hand that feeds'.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences."
      ],
      "id": "en-take_the_heat-en-verb-Gzfexns8",
      "links": [
        [
          "blame",
          "blame"
        ],
        [
          "focus",
          "focus"
        ],
        [
          "anger",
          "anger"
        ],
        [
          "scrutiny",
          "scrutiny"
        ],
        [
          "consequences",
          "consequences"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) To take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 25, Dua Lipa, Caroline Ailin, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, “Dance the Night”, in Barbie the Album, performed by Dua Lipa:",
          "text": "I can take the heat, baby, best believe\nThat's the moment I shine",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take, heat."
      ],
      "id": "en-take_the_heat-en-verb-7d0OZjXm",
      "links": [
        [
          "take",
          "take#English"
        ],
        [
          "heat",
          "heat#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "44 56",
          "word": "take the rap"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "take the heat"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes the heat",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking the heat",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took the heat",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken the heat",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> the heat"
      },
      "expansion": "take the heat (third-person singular simple present takes the heat, present participle taking the heat, simple past took the heat, past participle taken the heat)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "take the rap"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If this decision turns out to be a bad one, I'll take the heat for it.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3:",
          "text": "For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left train operators to 'take the heat' - which they dutifully did, fearful of speaking up and 'biting the hand that feeds'.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "blame",
          "blame"
        ],
        [
          "focus",
          "focus"
        ],
        [
          "anger",
          "anger"
        ],
        [
          "scrutiny",
          "scrutiny"
        ],
        [
          "consequences",
          "consequences"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) To take the blame; to be the focus of anger or scrutiny; to take the consequences."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 25, Dua Lipa, Caroline Ailin, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, “Dance the Night”, in Barbie the Album, performed by Dua Lipa:",
          "text": "I can take the heat, baby, best believe\nThat's the moment I shine",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take, heat."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "take",
          "take#English"
        ],
        [
          "heat",
          "heat#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "take the heat"
}

Download raw JSONL data for take the heat meaning in English (2.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (8c1bb29 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.