What does taking the 5th mean?

Answer 1

"Taking the fifth" or "pleading the fifth" means invoking the protection of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution--the one that guarantees us the right not to incriminate ourselves. As a witness on the witness stand in court, you can refuse to answer a question if you think the answer might put you in a bad spot with respect to the law. The Wikipedia article on the Fith Amendment (link below) says this: "The Fifth Amendment protects witnesses from being forced to incriminate themselves. To 'plead the fifth' is a refusal to answer a question because the response could form self incriminating evidence."