To unfairly direct your anger, frustration, or stress at someone who is not responsible for causing those feelings.
When you are angry or upset about one thing but you are mean to another person because of it.
2 meanings, ordered from most common to least. Color-coded by CEFR level.
To unfairly express your negative emotions — especially anger, stress, or frustration — by directing them at someone who did not cause them.
"He had a terrible day at work and came home and took it all out on his partner."
Don't take it out on me — I didn't do anything wrong.
— Common dialogue line; notably used in Friends, Season 3, Episode 2 (NBC, 1996)
To blame or punish someone for a situation they had no part in causing, as a way of coping with your own distress.
"I know the project failed, but please don't take your disappointment out on the junior staff."
She was taking out her personal unhappiness on the entire team.
— Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In (2013)
To physically remove something from inside something else and place it on another surface — the idiomatic sense borrows the idea of 'extracting' bottled-up emotion and 'depositing' it onto another person.
When you are angry or upset about one thing but you are mean to another person because of it.
Almost always used with a reflexive or pronoun object between 'take' and 'out': 'take it out on', 'take your frustration out on'. The construction 'take [something] out on [someone]' is the standard pattern. Using this phrase implies the speaker recognises the behaviour as unfair. Slightly more common in spoken English than written.
Natural word combinations native speakers use most often.
The five tense forms you'll use most often.
Listen to native speakers using "take out on" in real YouTube videos — click a clip to watch it on Looplines.
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