take exception

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

1. (often with the preposition to) To take offense; to object or protest.

   I think he took exception to the joke about environmentalists.

   I take exception to the assumption that simply because I am young I am not able to discern fact from fiction.

   • 1898 July 20, Percival A. Nairne, letter, published in the Lancet of 1898 December 10, page 1575:

     I am sorry to learn that the senior medical staff of the Dreadnought Hospital take exception to portions of Sir Henry Burdett's letter […] which was published in the Times of July 11th.

   • 1984, Jean S. McGill, Edmund Morris, Frontier Artist, Dundurn Press, →ISBN, page 165:

     […] the body of a deceased Indian, wrapped in a blanket and reposing on the limbs of an old tree in the sandhills. Horatio Walker, then President of the Club and generally so sympathetic with artists, seemingly took exception to it, and Morris felt the silent criticism […]

   • 1989, in Asia Yearbook,, Far Eastern Economic Review, page 167:

     Upset, about 20 Kuala Lumpur-based judges met on 25 March and decided that Salleh should write to the king explaining their position. The king apparently took exception to the letter or to the manner in which it was sent […]

2. To object to; to disagree with.