take a hit
verb
Simple meaning
To suffer undesirable consequences.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
taykuhhitSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈteɪkəˈhɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
informalidiomatic
To suffer undesirable consequences, especially a decrease in reputation, score, etc.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To suffer undesirable consequences, especially a decrease in reputation, score, etc.
Used this way, take a hit is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.