take kindly to

idiomatic phrase

: to feel or show an inclination or willingness to accept or approve of (something or someone)

She congratulated herself still more on observing in the course of days that Mr Verloc seemed to be taking kindly to Stevie's companionship.

—Joseph Conrad

—usually used in negative constructions

He doesn't take kindly to criticism. [=he doesn't like to be criticized]

But Terry Gilliam has never been a company man. … He has never taken kindly to the controls of studio heads and accountants …

—Kathi Maio

… Grandfather was a strict Loyalist. He would not take kindly to anyone who criticized the king!

—Valerie Trip

Examples of take kindly to in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Wojcicki sees herself as a leader who enjoys debate, and loves to push her people to think big, but says that not all of her team leaders took kindly to being challenged. —Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 17 Oct. 2024

Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong loses it as bandmates surprise him on stage dressed as Deadpool and Wolverine But the residents and radio stations of Vegas didn't take kindly to Armstrong's disparaging remarks about their city. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 1 Oct. 2024

One person who has not taken kindly to Altman’s bid to transition the corporate structure of the company behind ChatGPT is one of OpenAI’s original founders, Elon Musk. —Dave Smith, Fortune, 27 Sep. 2024

Vance didn’t take kindly to the fact-checking, which leads us to. —Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 2 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1733, in the meaning defined above