uptake

noun

1. apprehension; understanding or comprehension; mental grasp: quick on the uptake.
2. an act or instance of taking up; a lifting: the uptake of fertilizer by machines.
3. Also called take-up. Machinery. a pipe or passage leading upward from below, as for conducting smoke or a current of air.
4. Physiology. absorption.

noun

1. a pipe, shaft, etc, that is used to convey smoke or gases, esp one that connects a furnace to a chimney
2. mining another term for upcast (def. 2)
3. taking up or lifting up
4. the act of accepting or taking up something on offer or available
5. quick on the uptake informal quick to understand or learn
6. slow on the uptake informal slow to understand or learn

n.

“capacity for understanding,” 1816, from up + take. Cf. obsolete verb uptake “to pick or take up,” attested from c.1300.

n.

1. The absorption by a tissue of a substance, such as a nutrient, and its permanent or temporary retention.

see on the uptake.