Adjacent Words

Undertaking definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

UNDERTA'KING, ppr. Engaging in; taking in hand; beginning to perform; stipulating to execute.
UNDERTA'KING, n. Any business, work or project which a person engages in, or attempts to perform; an enterprise. The canal, or the making of the canal, from the Hudson to lake Erie, a distance of almost four hundred miles, was the greatest undertaking of the kind in modern times. The attempt to find a navigable passage to the Pacific round North America, is a hazardous undertaking, and probably useless to navigation.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted; "he prepared for great undertakings" [syn: undertaking, project, task, labor]
2: the trade of a funeral director

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century 1. a. the act of one who undertakes or engages in a project or business b. the business of an undertaker 2. something undertaken ; enterprise 3. pledge, guarantee

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 work etc. undertaken, an enterprise (a serious undertaking). 2 a pledge or promise. 3 the management of funerals as a profession.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Undertake Un`der*take", v. t. [imp. Undertook; p. p. Undertaken; p. pr. & vb. n. Undertaking.] [Under + take.] 1. To take upon one's self; to engage in; to enter upon; to take in hand; to begin to perform; to set about; to attempt. To second, or oppose, or undertake The perilous attempt. --Milton. 2. Specifically, to take upon one's self solemnly or expressly; to lay one's self under obligation, or to enter into stipulations, to perform or to execute; to covenant; to contract. I 'll undertake to land them on our coast. --Shak. 3. Hence, to guarantee; to promise; to affirm. And he was not right fat, I undertake. --Dryden. And those two counties I will undertake Your grace shall well and quietly enjoiy. --Shak. I dare undertake they will not lose their labor. --Woodward. 4. To assume, as a character. [Obs.] --Shak. 5. To engage with; to attack. [Obs.] It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offense to. --Shak. 6. To have knowledge of; to hear. [Obs.] --Spenser. 7. To take or have the charge of. [Obs.] ``Who undertakes you to your end.'' --Shak. Keep well those that ye undertake. --Chaucer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Undertaking Un`der*tak"ing, n. 1. The act of one who undertakes, or engages in, any project or business. --Hakluyt. 2. That which is undertaken; any business, work, or project which a person engages in, or attempts to perform; an enterprise. 3. Specifically, the business of an undertaker, or the management of funerals. 4. A promise or pledge; a guarantee. --A. Trollope.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(undertakings) 1. An undertaking is a task or job, especially a large or difficult one. Organizing the show has been a massive undertaking. N-COUNT 2. If you give an undertaking to do something, you formally promise to do it. The MOD gave an undertaking to Saville that it had provided him with all relevant material. N-COUNT: oft N to-inf

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Enterprise, engagement, attempt, adventure, endeavor, effort.

Moby Thesaurus

accomplished fact, accomplishment, achievement, act, acta, action, activities, activity, adventure, affair, affairs, agreement, approach, assay, assurance, attempt, bag, bail, bid, blow, bond, business, commerce, commitment, concern, concernment, contract, coup, crack, dealings, deed, doing, doings, earnest, earnest money, effort, employ, employment, endeavor, engagement, enterprise, escrow, essay, experiment, exploit, fait accompli, feat, fling, function, gage, gambit, gest, go, guarantee, guaranty, hand, handiwork, handsel, hassle, hock, hostage, interest, job, labor, lick, lookout, mainprise, maneuver, matter, measure, move, obligation, occupation, offer, operation, overt act, passage, pawn, performance, performing, pignus, pledge, preengagement, proceeding, production, project, promise, realization, recognizance, replevin, replevy, res gestae, service, shot, stab, step, striving, stroke, strong bid, struggle, stunt, surety, task, tentative, thing, thing done, token payment, tour de force, transaction, trial, trial and error, try, turn, understanding, vadimonium, vadium, venture, verbal agreement, vow, warranty, whack, work, works