take up with

take up with (third-person singular simple present takes up with, present participle taking up with, simple past took up with, past participle taken up with)

1. To form a close relationship with (someone).

   I hear that John has taken up with Jane.

2. To become interested in (something).
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The King and Queen Make a Progress to the Frontiers. The Author Attends Them. The Manner in which He Leaves the Country Very Particularly Related. He Returns to England.”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), pages 306–307:

     For although the Queen had ordered a little Equipage of all things neceſſary while I was in her Service, yet my Ideas were wholly taken up with what I ſaw on every ſide of me, and winked at my own Littleneſs as People do at their own Faults.

   • 2001, Vincent Curcio, Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius‎, page 112:

     It seems, then, that automobiles and automobiling were on Walter Chrysler's mind for a long time before he took up with this legendary Locomobile

3. To begin living together with; to lodge with.
4. (archaic) To be contented to receive; to receive without opposition; to put up with
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take,‎ up,‎ take up,‎ with.

   He took them up with him on his next trip to the mountains.

   He took up painting with his wife.

   He took up the overpayment with his supplier.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:take up with.

• “take up with”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “take up with”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.