undertake

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʌndəˈteɪk/

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• Rhymes: -eɪk

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,

     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,

     […] 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,

     As leene was his hors as is a rake,

     And he nas nat right fat, I undertake,

     But looked holwe and therto sobrely.

   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Bk.VII:

     “I have now aspyed one knyght,” he seyde, “that woll play hys play at the justys, I undirtake.”

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 3,

     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,

     […] 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, chapter 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.
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, Scene 2,

     Quince. […] you must needs play Pyramus.

     Bottom. Well, I will undertake it.

7. (obsolete) To engage with; to attack, take on in a fight.
   • c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act II, Scene 1,

     It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to.

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,

     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.
   • c. 1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Physician’s Tale, lines 81-82, The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Bell & Daldy, 1866, Volume 3, p. 78,

     […] therfore, for Cristes sake,

     Kepeth wel tho that ye undertake.

   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act II, Scene 1,

     To the water side I must conduct your grace;

     Then give my charge up to Sir Nicholas Vaux,

     Who undertakes you to your end.

• Sense: To commit oneself. This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive.
• See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• undertaker
• undertaking