Meaning of "His scheme never took off"

[Sultano]

Could you set forth the phrase of "never took off " in the following sentence:

His original scheme for a team of critics for the arts never took off.

[Alan]

Hi,

The phrasal verb 'take off' has one or two meanings. In your sentence it means start successfully. It has the idea of begin to be accepted. If you have an idea, particularly in a commericial/business sense and you do not succeed in getting enough support or interest from people, you say:The idea didn't take off or you could use a related expression and say:My idea didn't get off the ground.

A
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