undertaking
/ʌndəˈteɪkɪŋ
/noun
1A formal pledge or promise to do something: I give an undertaking that we shall proceed with the legislation...
- As a result of this agreement, doctors gave the health authorities an undertaking that they would resume overtime duties with immediate effect.
- In the application, my learned friend said that, if it was to be granted, there was an agreement or, at least, there was an undertaking that costs would be paid in any event to the respondent.
- The station was asked to give an undertaking that it will present any argument or discussion about the new broadcast franchise in a fair and balanced way while it continues on the air.
Synonyms
pledge, agreement, promise, oath, covenant, vow, word, word of honour, solemn word, bond, commitment, guarantee, assurance, warrant, contract, compact
1.1 [mass noun] The action of undertaking to do something: the knowing undertaking of an obligation...
- It is not to be involved in the actual undertaking of the task to gather the evidence.
- In undertaking that task, it may be, and commonly will be, necessary to make some assessment of the strength of the case for invalidity.
- The strength of practice nurses, says the writer, is that the care they offer patients is based on research rather than the ritualistic undertaking of tasks allocated by general practitioners.
2A task that is taken on; an enterprise: a mammoth undertaking that involved digging into the side of a cliff face...
- The task was a mammoth undertaking, requiring thousands of hours of research, writing, sourcing photographs and planning the events of the day itself.
- It was a mammoth undertaking, a five-year project in the planning, filmed over 15 months and involving over 90 speaking parts.
- ‘The task ahead for you is a mammoth undertaking to ensure the continuation of our fishing industries,’ he told the 300 delegates.
Synonyms
enterprise, venture, project, campaign, scheme, plan, operation, endeavour, effort, task, assignment, charge, activity, pursuit, exploit, job, business, affair, procedure, proceeding, process, transaction;
mission, quest, exploration, expedition
2.1A company or business: national transport undertakings...
- Among the eight Indian companies in the list, three companies are public sector undertakings while five are from the private sector.
- They were as much, maybe more, involved in producing transport technology as the public undertakings and private enterprises were.
- Measures to privatize publicly owned undertakings and weaken trade unions were also introduced.
3 [mass noun] The business of managing funerals.
