Definition of Take the Fifth

1. Verb. Refuse to testify by invoking the Fifth Amendment, which states that nobody may be forced to testify as a witness against himself or herself.

Exact synonyms: Take The Fifth Amendment
Generic synonyms: Declare

Definition of Take the Fifth

1. Verb. (idiomatic) To decline to comment, especially on grounds that it might be incriminating. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Take The Fifth

take that
take the Fifth (current term)
take the Fifth Amendment
take the Michael
take the air
take the biscuit
take the bull by the horns
take the cake
take the con
take the count
take the cross
take the cure
take the fall
take the field
take the fifth
take the floor
take the game to
take the heat
take the hint
take the lead
take the liberty
take the mick
take the mickey
take the offensive
take the pee
take the pledge
take the plunge
take the rap

Literary usage of Take the Fifth

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Community Church: The Story of a Minister's Experience which Led Him from by Henry Ezekiel Jackson (1919)
"But whether you take the fifth or third course depends on the present state of ... If they are equal to it, I think you ought to take the fifth course. ..."

2. Scales, Intervals, Harmony: (revised Method Harmony Instruction) Eliminating by Dirk Haagmans (1916)
"Moreover, it is prohibitive for the Bass at any time to take the fifth of a triad in two successive chords. NOTE No. 134. The rules given in Notes No. ..."

3. An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix (1825)
"J for example, is to take the fifth part of it, because the multiplier .J. being the fifth port of unity, ..."

4. A New System of Arithmetick Theorical and Practical: Wherein the Science of by Alexander Malcolm (1730)
"Again, i I- take an Harmonical Mean betwixt D and A, Again, take the Fifth 3 : г j an Arithmetical Mean, ..."

5. An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix (1825)
"... and to multiply any number by a fraction, | for example, is to take the fifth part of it, because the multiplier ^ being the fifth part of unity, ..."

6. An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix, John Farrar (1821)
"... and to multiply any number by a fraction, j for example, is to take the fifth part of it, because the multiplier |, being the fifth part of unity, ..."

7. Music (1895)
"You take the fifth, that's masculine. The C sharp fugue is a trick. As to phrasing Bach, its a favorite question of a "smart Alec" pupil to say: "Why didn't ..."

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