undertook

3 definitions found

undertook - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Undertake \Un`der*take"\, v. t. [imp. Undertook; p. p.
     Undertaken; p. pr. & vb. n. Undertaking.] [Under + take.]
     1. To take upon one's self; to engage in; to enter upon; to
        take in hand; to begin to perform; to set about; to
        attempt.
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              To second, or oppose, or undertake
              The perilous attempt.                 --Milton.
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     2. Specifically, to take upon one's self solemnly or
        expressly; to lay one's self under obligation, or to enter
        into stipulations, to perform or to execute; to covenant;
        to contract.
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              I 'll undertake to land them on our coast. --Shak.
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     3. Hence, to guarantee; to promise; to affirm.
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              And he was not right fat, I undertake. --Dryden.
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              And those two counties I will undertake
              Your grace shall well and quietly enjoiy. --Shak.
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              I dare undertake they will not lose their labor.
                                                    --Woodward.
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     4. To assume, as a character. [Obs.] --Shak.
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     5. To engage with; to attack. [Obs.]
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              It is not fit your lordship should undertake every
              companion that you give offense to.   --Shak.
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     6. To have knowledge of; to hear. [Obs.] --Spenser.
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     7. To take or have the charge of. [Obs.] "Who undertakes you
        to your end." --Shak.
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              Keep well those that ye undertake.    --Chaucer.
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  Undertook \Un`der*took"\,
     imp. of Undertake.
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undertook - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  UNDERTOOK. Assumed; promised. 
       2. This is a technical word which ought to be inserted in every 
  declaration of assumpsit, charging that the defendant undertook to perform 
  the promise which is the foundation of the suit; and this though the promise 
  be founded on a legal liability, or would be implied in evidence. Bac. Ab 
  Assumpsit, F; 1 Chit. Pl. 88, note p.