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UNDERTAKING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
Example:
he prepared for great undertakings
Synonyms:
labor; project; task; undertaking
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("undertaking" is a kind of...):
work (activity directed toward making or doing something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "undertaking"):
breeze; child's play; cinch; duck soup; picnic; piece of cake; pushover; snap; walkover (any undertaking that is easy to do)
adventure; dangerous undertaking; escapade; risky venture (a wild and exciting undertaking (not necessarily lawful))
assignment (an undertaking that you have been assigned to do (as by an instructor))
baby (a project of personal concern to someone)
endeavor; endeavour; enterprise (a purposeful or industrious undertaking (especially one that requires effort or boldness))
labor of love; labour of love (productive work performed voluntarily without material reward or compensation)
endurance contest; marathon (any long and arduous undertaking)
no-brainer (anything that requires little thought)
proposition (a task to be dealt with)
large order; tall order (a formidable task or requirement)
venture (any venturesome undertaking especially one with an uncertain outcome)
Instance hyponyms:
Manhattan Project (code name for the secret United States project set up in 1942 to develop atomic bombs for use in World War II)
Derivation:
undertake (enter upon an activity or enterprise)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The trade of a funeral director
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("undertaking" is a kind of...):
craft; trade (the skilled practice of a practical occupation)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb undertake
Context examples:
So may the saints keep you and prosper you in your undertaking!
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then she drank to prosperity in his undertakings, and he drank to the hope that James Grant would show up and pay her for his washing.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
If you are saying to yourself that you would love to move, but the cost of such an undertaking seems daunting, the universe might have a plan to help you get started.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
To some few of the company it appeared rather a bold undertaking, considering the time of year, and that it had rained every day for the last fortnight;—and Mrs. Dashwood, who had already a cold, was persuaded by Elinor to stay at home.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Conditions favoured the undertaking.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
As a matter of fact, burglars who have done a good stroke of business are, as a rule, only too glad to enjoy the proceeds in peace and quiet without embarking on another perilous undertaking.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
To compose a letter which might at once do justice to her sentiments and her situation, convey gratitude without servile regret, be guarded without coldness, and honest without resentment—a letter which Eleanor might not be pained by the perusal of—and, above all, which she might not blush herself, if Henry should chance to see, was an undertaking to frighten away all her powers of performance; and, after long thought and much perplexity, to be very brief was all that she could determine on with any confidence of safety.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
For a long time I have thought that each post would bring this line, and my persuasions have restrained my uncle from undertaking a journey to Ingolstadt.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
My uncle engaged afterwards in more prosperous undertakings: it appears he realised a fortune of twenty thousand pounds.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Scarcely had he done regretting Mary Crawford, and observing to Fanny how impossible it was that he should ever meet with such another woman, before it began to strike him whether a very different kind of woman might not do just as well, or a great deal better: whether Fanny herself were not growing as dear, as important to him in all her smiles and all her ways, as Mary Crawford had ever been; and whether it might not be a possible, an hopeful undertaking to persuade her that her warm and sisterly regard for him would be foundation enough for wedded love.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
