take up for

Support in an argument, as in To our surprise her father took up for her fiancé. [Second half of 1800s]

To support (a person or group, for example) in an argument.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Irmhild	EERM-hilt	German
Joetta	-	English
Konstantin	KAWN-stahn-teen (German), kahn-stahn-TEEN (Russian)	German, Hungarian, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian
Greta	GRE-tah (German), GRET-ə (English)	Swedish, German, English
Young	yung	Korean
Ealair	-	Scottish