Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Uptake \Up*take"\, v. t.
   To take into the hand; to take up; to help. [Obs.] --Wyclif.
   Spenser.

Uptake \Up"take`\, n. (Steam Boilers)
   1. The pipe leading upward from the smoke box of a steam
      boiler to the chimney, or smokestack; a flue leading
      upward.

   2. Understanding; apprehension. [Scot.] --Sir W. Scott.

Source : WordNet®

uptake
     n 1: the process of taking food into the body through the mouth
          (as by eating) [syn: {consumption}, {ingestion}, {intake}]
     2: a process of taking up or using up or consuming; "they
        developed paper napkins with greater uptake of liquids"