undertake

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English undertaken; equivalent to under- +‎ take (after undernim).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ʌndəˈteɪk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪk

Verb

undertake (third-person singular simple present undertakes, present participle undertaking, simple past undertook, past participle undertaken)

  1. (transitive) To take upon oneself; to start, to embark on (a specific task etc.).
    • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 417-420,[1]
      This said, he sat; and expectation held
      His look suspense, awaiting who appeared
      To second, or oppose, or undertake
      The perilous attempt.
  2. (intransitive) To commit oneself (to an obligation, activity etc.).
    He undertook to exercise more in future.
    • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act III, Scene 3,[2]
      […] if King Lewis vouchsafe to furnish us
      With some few bands of chosen soldiers,
      I’ll undertake to land them on our coast
      And force the tyrant from his seat by war.
  3. (informal) To overtake on the wrong side.
    I hate people who try and undertake on the motorway.
  4. (archaic, intransitive) To pledge; to assert, assure; to dare say.
    • c. 1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, lines 289-291,[3]
      As leene was his hors as is a rake,
      And he nas nat right fat, I undertake,
      But looked holwe and therto sobrely.
    • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 3,[4]
      That is her ransom; I deliver her;
      And those two counties I will undertake
      Your grace shall well and quietly enjoy.
    • 1695, John Woodward, An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, London: Richard Wilkin, Part 4, pp. 222-223,[5]
      […] if those Persons who are curious in collecting either Minerals, or the Shells, Teeth, or other Parts of Animal Bodies that have been buried in the Earth, do but search the Hills after Rains, and the Sea-Shores after Storms, I dare undertake they will not lose their Labour.
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To take by trickery; to trap, to seize upon.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxxvij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX:
      :
      there came fourty knyghtes to sire Darras / […] / and they wold haue slayne sire Tristram and his two felawes / but sire Darras wold not suffre that but kepte them in pryson / […] / So sire Tristram endured there grete payne / for sekenesse had vndertake hym / and that is the grettest payne a prysoner maye haue
  6. (obsolete) To assume, as a character; to take on.
  7. (obsolete) To engage with; to attack, take on in a fight.
  8. (obsolete) To have knowledge of; to hear.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book 5, Canto 3, Stanza 34, London: George Allen, 1896, p. 1098,[8]
      Ne he his mouth would open unto wight,
      Untill that Guyon selfe unto him spake,
      And called Brigadore, (so was he hight,)
      Whose voice so soone as he did undertake,
      Eftsoones he stood as still as any stake,
  9. (obsolete) To have or take charge of.

Usage notes

Derived terms

Translations

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