undertake
Verbundertakes, undertaking, undertook, undertaken
Noun pluralundertakes
Formsundertakes, undertaking, undertook, undertaken
Pluralundertakes
- 1To take upon oneself and begin a particular task, project, or responsibility.
The firm agreed to undertake the construction of the new bridge.
Researchers undertook a detailed study of the region's wildlife.
Similartackle
Note
Middle English built it from under- and take, modeled on the older verb undernim. Its object is the job itself: you undertake a study, a journey, a repair. Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) gives it a grand object, "the perilous attempt." The near synonyms tackle and set about lean toward getting started, while undertake keeps the older idea of taking a burden upon oneself.
- 2To commit oneself to an obligation, activity, or course of action.
The contractor undertook to complete the work by spring.
They undertake to abide by the terms of the agreement.
Similarpromise, pledge, agree, guarantee
Note
Here the object is a promise rather than a task, and the construction shows it: undertake is followed by to and a verb. He undertook to exercise more; in Shakespeare's Third Part of Henry the Sixt a speaker vows "I'll undertake to land them on our coast." Compare the "embark on a task" meaning, which takes a noun. Undertaking a study begins it, while undertaking to study only commits you to it.
- 3To overtake a slower vehicle on the curbside lane rather than on the side nearer oncoming traffic.
The motorcyclist undertook several cars stuck in the outside lane.
It's illegal to undertake other vehicles on most British motorways.
Oppositeovertake
Note
The verb is built as the mirror image of overtake: over- for passing on the usual side, under- for slipping past on the curbside. It is British and informal. Because the same spelling carries the far older senses of commitment, context does all the work, and undertaking a lorry shares nothing with the "take on a task" sense beyond the prefix and the verb take.
- 4The maneuver of overtaking slower traffic on the curbside lane rather than on the side closest to oncoming traffic.
A sudden undertake caused the near-collision on the M25.
Police recorded several undertakes during the morning rush hour.
Oppositeovertake
Note
The verb is put to work unchanged as a countable noun: one undertake, several undertakes. The plural shares its spelling with the verb's third-person present, so "he undertakes" and "three undertakes" look identical on the page. Like the driving verb, it pairs with overtake as its opposite, and as a noun it carries only the road meaning.
- 5To pledge or assert confidently; to assure, or to venture to say that something is so.
I will undertake that no harm shall come to your family.
That is her ransom; I deliver her; And those two counties I will undertake Your grace shall well and quietly enjoy.
1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”Note
Older writers use it to vouch for something, with the claim following directly. Shakespeare's First Part of Henry the Sixt has "those two counties I will undertake / Your grace shall well and quietly enjoy," and John Woodward in 1695 writes "I dare undertake," much as we would say "I dare say." Read it as a guarantee. In modern writing it sounds deliberately old-fashioned.
- 6To assume or take on a role, character, or persona.
Note
Bottom's line in Shakespeare's A Midsommer Nights Dreame shows it at work. Told he must play Pyramus, he answers "Well, I will undertake it." The object is a part to be played, not a job to be done, though the two shade together on a stage. A modern reader naturally hears the "embark on a task" meaning there and loses little. The obsolete sense simply makes the role itself the thing taken on.
- 7To engage with or take on an opponent in combat or a fight.
He boldly undertook three armed men at the gate.
It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to.
1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”Note
A fighting sense that has dropped out of the language. In Shakespeare's Cymbeline (1611), a lord is told it is not fit that he should undertake every companion he quarrels with, meaning challenge each one to a fight. Modern readers will hear the task-taking meaning instead, so in your own writing use take on, attack or engage. Keep this sense for reading older texts.
- 8To take charge of; to assume responsibility for the management of something.
To the water side I must conduct your grace; Then give my charge up to Sir Nicholas Vaux, Who undertakes you to your end.
1613, William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher]Note
At its sharpest, the thing taken in charge is a person. In Shakespeare and John Fletcher's play of 1613, a prisoner is handed over to Sir Nicholas Vaux, "Who undertakes you to your end." Taking charge here means custody and escort to the last, a grim weight the modern verb no longer carries.
- 9To take by trickery; to trap or seize someone through deceit.
- 10To have knowledge of; to come to hear or learn of something.
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,
1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneNote
Older verse sometimes turns the verb toward perception rather than action. In Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596), Brigadore stands "as still as any stake" the moment he hears Guyon call him: "Whose voice so soone as he did undertake." When the object in an early text is a voice or a piece of news, read it as hear, not as begin.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of undertake apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English undertaken, equivalent to under- plus take (formed after undernim).