take one for the team
Meaning(s)
1. sacrifice one's own interests in favour of others'
Popularity
Medium
Professional
Medium
Social
How to Memorize
agree/ask/volunteer to take one for the team
Analysis
The expression to 'take one for the team' means to make a sacrifice or to accept hardship or difficulty for the sake of making something easier for your friends or colleagues. This is an informal idiomatic expression usually used in social contexts.
Social Examples (Basic)
- There wasn't enough room for all of us to fit into the car, so I agreed to take one for the team and get the bus to the concert instead.
- She really took one for the team when she said it was her fault that we were all late.
Professional Examples (Basic)
- Nobody in the office wanted to tell our boss that we didn't manage to push the deal through before the deadline, so I took one for the team and let her know. She was absolutely furious!
- Neil knew that Emma had plans with her family at the weekend, but with the project running so far behind, he asked her to take one for the team and come into the office on Saturday.