Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Take-up \Take"-up`\, n. (Mach.)
   That which takes up or tightens; specifically, a device in a
   sewing machine for drawing up the slack thread as the needle
   rises, in completing a stitch.

Source : WordNet®

take-up
     n 1: a device for reducing slack or taking up lost motion
     2: the action of taking up as by tightening or absorption or
        reeling in