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Undertake   Listen
verb
Undertake  v. i.  (past undertook; past part. undertaken; pres. part. undertaking)  
1.
To take upon one's self, or assume, any business, duty, or province. "O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me."
2.
To venture; to hazard. (Obs.) "It is the cowish terror of his spirit That dare not undertake."
3.
To give a promise or guarantee; to be surety. "But on mine honor dare I undertake For good lord Titus' innocence in all."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Undertake" Quotes from Famous Books



... growling now and then over the closeness of the mishap, until the horns sounded merrily for the gathering of us all to the barrier, where was even more work for men and hounds than the kings could undertake. They had taken their fill of the sport also, and had no mind to leave their ...
— A King's Comrade - A Story of Old Hereford • Charles Whistler

... subject can not be too promptly considered or decided upon. You are to plan the scope of women's work in this exposition. Give the representation of women's work in this exposition a national or international character. If of an international character, will this board undertake to select the people who are to go abroad to represent the women of this country in appealing to the women of other countries? * * * It is a matter of supreme consequence that the women of the country shall be represented ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

... labor he was to undertake in the region in which his hero strength—so the impious king hoped—would not accompany him. This was a fight with the dark powers of the underworld. He was to bring forth from Hades Cerberus, the dog of Hell. This animal had three heads ...
— Myths and Legends of All Nations • Various

... into the hand of an official, who eventually helped us to effect our purpose, after evincing some reluctance. Staying a few days after this at a peasant's hut, we had been fortunate enough to win his goodwill, and it was in consequence of what he told us that we promised to undertake our present expedition. ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 30, June 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... "But in future I undertake to get you all you want. Out of this, Sandip Babu, please return the extra two thousand five hundred ...
— The Home and the World • Rabindranath Tagore

... large field, though it is a thing that I must confess I feel a reluctance almost in venturing to undertake, exhausted as I am, yet such is the magnitude of the affair, such the evil consequences that followed from a system of bribery, such the horrible consequences of superseding all the persons in office in the country to ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... tale we are informed of a conjurer who had the reputation of possessing the faculty of reading the contents of sealed letters. Being called into the presence of his prince, he was asked whether he would undertake to inform him of the contents of a despatch he had received by a courier. "Yes," replied the conjuror, "to-morrow morning." The despatch remained sealed in the prince's possession until the following morning, when the conjuror gave the correct contents of the despatch. In explanation, the cunning ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant

... undertake Something that's noble, to preserve my memory From the disgrace that's ...
— Venice Preserved - A Tragedy in Five Acts • Thomas Otway

... Doguereau, heedless of Lucien's surprise. "In ready money," he added; "and you shall undertake to write two books for me every year for six years. If the first book is out of print in six months, I will give you six hundred francs for the others. So, if you write two books each year, you will be making a hundred francs a month; you will have ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... not undertake ye, were you again a Haggard, for the best cast of four Ladys i'th' Kingdom: you were ever tickle-footed, and would not ...
— The Scornful Lady • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... SUFFOLK. I'll undertake to make thee Henry's queen, To put a golden scepter in thy hand And set a precious crown upon thy head, If thou ...
— King Henry VI, First Part • William Shakespeare [Aldus edition]

... heads higher, would be glad to accept.[75] But alas! I never had any such wicked thought; all I now desire is, only to enjoy a little quiet, to be free from the persecutions of this unreasonable man, and that he will let me manage my own little fortune to the best advantage; for which I will undertake to pay him a considerable pension every year, much more considerable than what he now gets by his oppressions; for he must needs find himself a loser at last, when he hath drained me and my tenants so dry, ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Vol. VII - Historical and Political Tracts—Irish • Jonathan Swift

... for immunity from arrest, but as a punishment, a retribution to Amy. The loss of the ring, which she has commissioned me to get to this gentleman in some manner, will be a lesson she is only too anxious to give herself, a forcible reminder, as it were. Let me beg of you to undertake this commission." ...
— The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton • Wardon Allan Curtis

... leisurely old carpenter who recently turned up as heir of the Opal Farm, Amos Opie by name, who is thinking of living there, and has signified his willingness to undertake the pergola by hour's work, "if he is not hustled," as soon as ...
— The Garden, You, and I • Mabel Osgood Wright

... home, collected my men together, and told them the importance of the work we were to undertake. I have found it always a good thing to make the men think the job that they are doing is of great importance. Better ...
— "Crumps", The Plain Story of a Canadian Who Went • Louis Keene

... breed no difference; you see Charles has giv'n ore the World; Ile undertake, And with much ease, to buy his birthright of him For a dry-fat of new bookes; nor shall my state Alone make way for him, but my-elder brothers, Who being issueless, t'advance our name, I doubt not will add his; ...
— The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher - Vol. 2 of 10: Introduction to The Elder Brother • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... when it is customary to take the sacrament at Easter? People must certainly do something for their party. The Liberals, whatever they may wish to do, will never destroy the religious instinct. Religion will always be a political necessity. Would you undertake to govern a nation of logic-choppers? Napoleon was afraid to try; he persecuted ideologists. If you want to keep people from reasoning, you must give them something to feel. So let us accept the Roman Catholic Church with all ...
— The Thirteen • Honore de Balzac

... He had no seat, and he intended not to take any at first; but now he changed his mind, and bought one, not only in Philadelphia, but in New York also. A certain Joseph Zimmerman, a dry-goods man for whom he had handled various note issues, suggested that he undertake operating in street-railway shares for him, and this was the beginning of ...
— The Financier • Theodore Dreiser

... Archbishop became strained to breaking-point. Wolfgang was now twenty-one, with a reputation as a composer, but with no settled future; it was clear that nothing was to be hoped for by his remaining in Salzburg, and Leopold therefore resolved to undertake a professional tour with his son. For this purpose a prolonged leave of absence was necessary; but the Archbishop met Leopold's application ...
— Story-Lives of Great Musicians • Francis Jameson Rowbotham

... A league of Evangelical bankers who fully believed in the prophecies they are so fond of quoting could turn the wildest fancies of Dr. Cumming into sober earnest with very little trouble indeed. Any emigration agent would undertake the transport of Houndsditch bodily to Joppa; the bare limestone uplands of Judaea could be covered again with terraces of olive and vine at precisely the same cost of money and industry as is still required to keep up the cultivation ...
— Stray Studies from England and Italy • John Richard Green

... prospect of the highest legal advancement, and with an extremely lucrative practice, which his family circumstances made it no light matter for him to sacrifice, but which he knew it would be impossible for him to retain in conjunction with the political duties he was now urged to undertake. Although only in his fifty-seventh year, he was never one of those who feel younger than their age; nor did he minimise in his own mind the disability caused by his too frequent physical ailments, which inclined him to shrink from embarking upon fresh work the extent and nature ...
— Ulster's Stand For Union • Ronald McNeill

... guess how they managed such matters. "But, in short," said he, "it is a waste of time and patience to dwell longer upon a thing so incurably frivolous,—puny even among its own puny race, and such as only the Banyan Hospital[181] for Sick Insects should undertake." ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... kissed their feet in the grand Oriental way individually and collectively, said he would lay their wishes before his colleagues, but that he could give no promise to recall the mandate of the municipality—it was more than he dare undertake to do, and so forth. The long and short of it was, he politely sent them about their business. They came away, working the fans more pettishly than ever, and liquid voices were heard to hiss scornfully that the Republic, which proclaimed respect for all religions and rights, was a lie, for its first ...
— Romantic Spain - A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II) • John Augustus O'Shea

... so thoroughly that they could not be deceived in him. He distrusted their evidence and believed the jury would distrust it too. The brand was as different as possible from the brand seen to have been on the beast originally. One short-horn was very like another. He would not undertake to swear positively in any such case, and he implored the jury, as men of the world, as men of experience in all transactions relating to stock (here some of the people in the court grinned) to dismiss from ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... he said, "we have heard from Don Felix d'Estaban that you have refused our proffered privilege of seeking and employing some friends, subtle in judgment, and learned in all the technicalities of such proceedings, as to-day will witness, to undertake your cause. Why is this? Is your honor of such small amount, that you refuse even to accept the privilege of defence? Are you so well prepared yourself to refute the evidence which has been collected against you, that you need no more? Or have ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar

... to prevent the tears from coming. Who could ever have thought that so frivolous a woman would have had so much feeling for her friend? Then he rose, bowed and curtly informed the countess that he would undertake the commission. ...
— The Poor Plutocrats • Maurus Jokai

... temporarily no doubt, but not generally, and in no case permanently. It is doubtful if profits, on the whole, were higher than they had to be to encourage capitalists to undertake production and trade." ...
— Equality • Edward Bellamy

... are not so plenty, where I undertake jobs! Let's have a stake down there, pretty near the slew; then we will measure our line, and see how much farther we have ...
— The Young Surveyor; - or Jack on the Prairies • J. T. Trowbridge

... action upon this hypothesis. I should advise them to be even less hasty in basing it upon the assumption that to secure a powerful literary backing is a matter within the compass of any one who chooses to undertake it. No one who has not a strong social position should ever advance a new theory, unless a life of hard fighting is part of what he lays himself out for. It was one of Mr. Darwin's great merits that he had a strong social position, and had the good sense to know how ...
— Luck or Cunning? • Samuel Butler

... of the colony, but the Company did not live up to this policy. Instead, it made lavish donations, some of them containing a hundred square miles or more, to directors and friends of the Company in France who neither came to the colony themselves nor sent representatives to undertake the clearing of these large estates. One director took the entire Island of Orleans; others secured generous slices of the best lands on both shores of the St. Lawrence; but not one of them lifted a finger in the way of redeeming these huge concessions from a state ...
— Crusaders of New France - A Chronicle of the Fleur-de-Lis in the Wilderness - Chronicles of America, Volume 4 • William Bennett Munro

... under Mr. Herriot's orders. I think you are wise enough not to try to mutiny with him. But if you should undertake it, remember that no sooner does your sloop draw away to over one mile's distance than I will come after you and blow you out of water without parley. There are just enough sails left aboard your ship to keep headway in a light ...
— The Black Buccaneer • Stephen W. Meader

... the first to surpass Columbus, that I did not realize the full meaning. I thought, also, you seemed rather ready to leave me," she added gently, "and so said little; you do not know how it almost breaks my heart now that I am about to lose you. It was quixotic to let you undertake this journey." "An undertaker would have given me his kind offices for one even longer, had I remained here," replied Ayrault. "I cannot live in this humdrum world without you. The most sustained ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor

... dependencies. Americans can never be satisfied to be underlings. Whatever the fortunes of war legitimately bring, they are sensible enough to submit to; but it is not in their spirit to consent to any permanent degradation. Undertake to deprive them permanently of their civil rights, and you simply make them your permanent enemies. Territorialize them because you hate slavery, and the inevitable effect will be that you will only make them love ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol V. Issue III. March, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... work, set to work, set to; make a beginning, make a start. handsel; take the first step, lay the first stone, cut the first turf; break ground, break the ice, break cover; pass the Rubicon, cross the Rubicon; open fire, open the ball; ventilate, air; undertake &c. 676. come into existence, come into the world; make one's debut, take birth; burst forth, break out; spring up, spring forth, crop up, pop up, appear, materialize. begin at the beginning, begin ab ovo[Lat]. begin ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... if Mr. C. would undertake a journal of which we have talked much, but which we have never yet produced, he would do us great service, and we feel some confidence that it could be made to secure him a support. It is that project which I mentioned to you in a letter by Mr. Barnard,—a book to be called 'The Transcendentalist;' ...
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... after all, that only one should undertake this ordeal?" he asked. "I begged you to let me ...
— The Grey Room • Eden Phillpotts

... were to take a lodging in Whitefriars, to discover the best way for Sanquhar himself to strike a sure blow at the unconscious fencing-master. These men, after some reconnoitring, assured their employer that he could not himself get at Turner, but that they would undertake to do so, to which Sanquhar assented. But Gray's heart failed him after this, and he slipped away, and Turner went again out of town, to fence at some country mansion. Upon this Carlisle, a resolute ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury

... and agitation. Antony implored the by-standers to carry him to Cleopatra, that he might see her once more before he died. They shrank from the attempt; but, after some hesitation and delay, they concluded to undertake to remove him. So, taking him in their arms, they bore him along, faint and dying, and marking their track with his blood, toward ...
— Cleopatra • Jacob Abbott

... not undertake to renew my old acquaintance with hospitals and museums. I regretted that I could not be with my companion, who went through the Natural History Museum with the accomplished director, Professor W. H. Flower. One old acquaintance I did resuscitate. For the second ...
— Our Hundred Days in Europe • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... have deferred to his father's wishes for the Church. That Sydney was an affectionate and dutiful son nobody need doubt: he was always affectionate, and in his own way dutiful. But he is about the last man one can think of as likely to undertake an uncongenial profession out of high-flown dutifulness to a father who had long left him to his own resources, and who had neither influence nor prospects in the Church to offer him. The Fellowship would have kept him, as it ...
— Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 • George Saintsbury

... of the best room in it. He wished to know how a scandal was to be avoided when the place was swarming with old women. And, after all, what had they got against Mrs. Tailleur except that she was better looking by a long chalk, and better turned-out, than any of 'em? Of course, he couldn't undertake to say—offhand—whether she was or wasn't any better than she should be. But, in the absence of complaints, he didn't consider the question a profitable one for a manager to go into ...
— The Immortal Moment - The Story of Kitty Tailleur • May Sinclair

... their own. Men of this kind have no universal except their own interests or the interests of their class, no principle but the opinion of persons like themselves, no knowledge of affairs beyond what they pick up in the streets or at their club. Suppose them to be sent into a larger world, to undertake some higher calling, from being tradesmen to turn generals or politicians, from being schoolmasters to become philosophers:—or imagine them on a sudden to receive an inward light which reveals to them ...
— The Republic • Plato

... a curious scheme for invading and conquering China; this would bring much wealth to the crown of Spain, and be the means of converting innumerable souls to the Christian faith; the king is urged to undertake this enterprise at once. The arguments in justification of this conquest are left for Father Sanchez to explain to his Majesty. The forces, equipment, and supplies necessary are enumerated in detail, as also ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume VI, 1583-1588 • Emma Helen Blair

... against both.] France has been utterly dismayed by the tremendous lessons of the last war, and will hardly provoke another. All without and within the kingdom is adverse to encountering a hopeless struggle, and you alone, sir, seem willing to undertake a ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... body of the working classes, reference has been made to a further division of labour,—that between the different servant classes. One portion of the servant class, chiefly those persons whose occupation is vicarious leisure, come to undertake a new, subsidiary range of duties—the vicarious consumption of goods. The most obvious form in which this consumption occurs is seen in the wearing of liveries and the occupation of spacious servants' quarters. Another, scarcely less obtrusive or less effective form of vicarious ...
— The Theory of the Leisure Class • Thorstein Veblen

... attached to the balloon in place of the car. The London Athenaeum invokes the aid of the police to prevent such needless cruelty to animals, and to exercise proper supervision over the madmen who undertake such fool-hardy feats.——A plaster mask said to have been taken from the face of Shakspeare, and bearing the date 1616 on its back, has been brought to London from Mayence, which is said to have been procured from an ecclesiastical personage ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850 • Various

... themselves felt as a real power on the side of the people in their present great need. It was Christian America, but Philip's plan was not adopted. It was discussed with some warmth, but declared to be visionary, impracticable, unnecessary, not for the church to undertake, beyond its function, etc. Philip was disappointed, but he kept ...
— The Crucifixion of Philip Strong • Charles M. Sheldon

... promised to be at Mrs. Van Orley's before twelve o'clock. We are to settle about the curtain before luncheon. My dear fellow, it has been a privilege to see your work. By the way, you have never done any modelling, I suppose? You're so extraordinarily versatile—I didn't know whether you might care to undertake ...
— The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories • Edith Wharton

... immediately after the publication of the Index Expurgatorius in 1596. From an official report upon the decline of the printing trade in Venice, it appears that within the space of a few months the number of presses fell from 125 to 40.[108] Printers were afraid to undertake either old or new works, and the trade languished for lack of books to publish. Yet an edict had been issued announcing that by the terms of the Concordat with Clement VIII., the Venetian press would only be subject to State control and not to ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds

... the Thomas Paine Association will probably buy it, undertake the long-forgotten national obligation, and prevent it from crumbling to dust as ...
— Greenwich Village • Anna Alice Chapin

... parents' relation to God, all the disability which the child seems capable of receiving, is, that the promises made to him he must fail, by his own fault, to receive. Who will declare even his prospect of their fulfilment to be terminated at any given time? Much more, who will undertake to divest him of things which he never had? The church-membership, from which you profess to expel him, does not yet exist in his case; he has not reached it. All the church-membership of which, if any, he has been ...
— Bertha and Her Baptism • Nehemiah Adams

... indeed, that some high words had passed between them, but that he did not believe either of them would have remembered them the next day. He said that if no mischief had yet taken place, the best way would be to secure them both until the morning, and that if they could be found, he would undertake to reconcile them, and to obliterate all grievances: in this there was no great difficulty. On inquiry at the Marquis's they were informed that he was gone to his country-house: there certainly he was, and there they found him; the officer put ...
— The Memoirs of Count Grammont, Complete • Anthony Hamilton

... astonished at his early success, and though he followed the manner of Adrian Brouwer, looked on him as his most deserving pupil by the brightness of genius that he showed. He soon saved enough money to undertake the journey to Italy, and when at Rome he established himself with Adam Elsheimer, who was then in great vogue. In Elsheimer's manner he soon became a perfect master, without neglecting at the ...
— Six Centuries of Painting • Randall Davies

... lived upon the paternal ground the time appointed me by fate, 2737; pret. pl. sume þǣr bidon, some remained, waited there, 400.—2) to await, to wait for, with the gen. of that which is awaited: inf. bīdan woldon Grendles gūðe, wished to await the combat with Grendel, to undertake it, 482; similarly, 528; wīges bīdan, await the combat, 1269; nalas andsware bīdan wolde, would await no answer, 1495; pret. bād beadwa geþinges, awaited the event of the battle, 710; sǣgenga bād āgend-frēan, the sea-goer (boat) awaited its owner, 1883; sele ... heaðowylma bād, lāðan ...
— Beowulf • James A. Harrison and Robert Sharp, eds.

... frequently the same criminal networks are involved; pervasive corruption among state and local law enforcement often impedes investigations tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Mexico remains on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year based on future commitments to undertake additional efforts in prosecution, protection, and prevention of trafficking in persons, and the failure of the government to provide critical law ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... irritated couple were not disposed to undertake the somniferous task, and shortly left the house, as they had come, walking the same way, but at a distance of a yard or so ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 8 - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 19, 1850 • Various

... established in the United States, the members of which undertake to disuse mourning themselves, and to discountenance the use of it by others. It is only, perhaps, by association and the power of numbers that this reform is to be accomplished; for individuals here and there could scarcely be expected to make way against the deeply-rooted prejudices ...
— Thrift • Samuel Smiles

... is just right; I will give you a patient. Will you have me? I am famous practise; for there is scarcely a day when I do not deface God's noblest work for others, or they for me. Will you undertake the care of all the holes I make in the skin of others ...
— Chicot the Jester - [An abridged translation of "La dame de Monsoreau"] • Alexandre Dumas

... the signature of six wealthy gentlemen, who requested her acceptance of a tasteful and handsome house, on condition that she would consent to undertake the education of their daughters, and permit them to pay her ...
— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans

... one it shall be. If you have a good place in mind, I should be glad to have you tell me why you like it. It may influence my choice." She was a very popular teacher, and each pupil longed to have her for a companion during the summer. I never saw a class undertake a composition with more eagerness. In a certain fifth-year class in geography a contest between the boys and girls for the best collection of articles manufactured out of flax resulted in the greatest enthusiasm. The reading or committing to memory of stories with ...
— How To Study and Teaching How To Study • F. M. McMurry

... No, my boy, I have no such intention. I can make up the whole thing with perfect plausibility, here under your own roof; and by little study of the foreign telegrams, I would undertake to convince Thiers and Jules Favre themselves that I watched the play of their features from my private box at the French opera, night before last, that I had my eye at the key-hole while they performed their morning ablutions, and was present as eavesdropper at their ...
— Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

... for him to insist and to beg her; she showed herself intractable, and when they got to the door, she stated her conditions. "I will undertake not to leave this with you," she said, "if you will promise to do all I want to-day." And the whole affair seemed so funny to him that he agreed. "What do you generally do at this time?" she asked him; and after hesitating ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume III (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... understood with regard to the management of periodical works, that it is hardly necessary for the Editor to say that HE CANNOT UNDERTAKE TO RETURN MANUSCRIPTS; but on one point he wishes to offer a few words of explanation to his correspondents in general, and particularly to those who do not enable him to communicate with them except in print. They ...
— Notes & Queries 1849.11.17 • Various

... in the upper part of it themselves. However, his manner so well agreed with theirs, and he seemed so trusty a man, that he went out with them, and ravaged and destroyed the country with them about Masada; yet when he persuaded them to undertake greater things, he could not prevail with them so to do; for as they were accustomed to dwell in that citadel, they were afraid of going far from that which was their hiding-place; but he affecting to tyrannize, and being fond of greatness, when he had heard of the death of Ananus, he left ...
— The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem • Flavius Josephus

... your application," answered the Intelligencer, at the same time writing a few lines in his volume. "But to undertake such a business, I tell you frankly, is quite apart from the ground covered by my official duties. Ask for something specific, and it may doubtless be negotiated for you, on your compliance with the conditions. But were I to go further, I should ...
— The Intelligence Office (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... method; and so for supper, to the great oppression of the people. For the want of proper military laws, they were obstinate, self-willed, and perverse. Every individual had his own crude notion of things, and would undertake to direct. If his advice were neglected, he would think himself slighted, abused, and injured, and, to redress himself, would depart for ...
— The Life of George Washington, Volume I • Washington Irving

... I once contemplated the writing of such a history. It was Challis who, in his courtly, gentle way, pointed out to me that no man living had the intellectual capacity to undertake so profound a work. ...
— The Wonder • J. D. Beresford

... told McClellan that I felt a delicacy about the matter which made me hesitate to advise the Captain to give me the command of the company. He replied: "Yes, but this case is beyond mere delicacy. The act of leading the company ashore will kill him; and I think you can persuade him not to undertake it. You ought to try. I am sure he will not ...
— Company 'A', corps of engineers, U.S.A., 1846-'48, in the Mexican war • Gustavus Woodson Smith

... he would consult his wife, but Lothair observing he would himself undertake that office, when he entered the saloon, addressed Apollonia. Nothing could be more skilful than the manner in which Mrs. Giles, in this party, assumed precisely the position which equally became her and suited her own views; at the same time the somewhat humble friend, but the trusted counsellor, ...
— Lothair • Benjamin Disraeli

... years before by Jesus about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days. It is hard to see how they might expect to make anything out of that, for in the remark, as they understood it, He had proposed to undertake the rebuilding of the famous structure if they should destroy it. And then they can't even agree here. Clearly they're hard pushed. Something must be done. Precious time is slipping away. The thing must be in shape by dawn if they are to get it through before the crowds get hold ...
— Quiet Talks about Jesus • S. D. Gordon

... it of property to the value of fifteen thousand rupees. The Rajah, however, contrived to make his escape with his family. He had nothing with him to subsist upon, and in 1847 he was invited back on solemn pledges of personal security; and, from great distress, was induced again to undertake the management of his own estate, at an exorbitant rate ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman

... but we can assure our friendly critic, that we feel no call whatever to undertake the gratuitous direction of the American conscience. Our ambition to "do the thinking" of our Yankee cousins is materially damped by the unpleasant necessity which it involves, of being "done" ourselves. They seem, however, to claim a prescriptive ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847 • Various

... councillors. But as Bradstreet and Norton had both been persecutors of their Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Baptist brethren, and were conspicuous in promoting the bloody persecutions of the Quakers (now getting a favourable hearing for their sufferings at the English Court), they were unwilling to undertake so difficult and hazardous a mission without formal provision being made by the Massachusetts Court for indemnity for all the damage they ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 1 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Egerton Ryerson

... receive his final answer before the Cabinet to-morrow, which meets at ten o'clock. Lord Durham is anxious that your Majesty should express to him your wish, or rather, as he phrased it, lay upon him your commands that he should undertake this duty, and also that, as his absence will be but temporary, that Lady Durham[2] should retain her situation in your Majesty's household. Lord Melbourne thinks that your Majesty may properly gratify him in both these points. Lord Durham ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843) • Queen Victoria

... the mountain is the ultimate objective of the climber, but few, comparatively, will attempt it. It is a feat in endurance which not many are physically fit to undertake, while to the unfit there are no rewards. There is comparatively little rock-climbing, but what there is will try wind and muscle. Most of the way is tramping up long snow-covered and ice-covered slopes, with little rest from the start at midnight to the return, if all ...
— The Book of the National Parks • Robert Sterling Yard

... party were anxious to see what Macaulay was equally anxious to show, having himself only seen each sight once. The remainder of the time while we sat at table was occupied in discussing the various expeditions which the party must undertake in order to see the city and its surroundings systematically. After dinner John and I remained behind for a while. Paul wanted to talk to Hermione, and Macaulay, who was the most domestic of young men, ...
— Paul Patoff • F. Marion Crawford

... majorities would be compromised in Congress, and slavery would be forced to renounce forever the election of the Presidents of free America. To avoid such a misfortune, there is nothing that they would not have been ready to undertake. ...
— The Uprising of a Great People • Count Agenor de Gasparin

... seemed clearly impossible; so we do not feel full confidence now to prophesy against like impossibilities. Otherwise one would pipe out and say the Commission might as well bully the comets in their courses and undertake to make them behave, as try to bully the Mississippi into right and ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... her right, too," said Tom. "A woman should not undertake to nurse a tender little child without knowing what is good and what ...
— Black Beauty • Anna Sewell

... the priest, if he turn digamist, is deprived of the power of acting as a priest?{HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS} God wills that at all times we be so conditioned as to be fitted at all times and in all places to undertake His sacraments. There is one God, one faith, one discipline as well. So truly is this the case that unless the laics well observe the rules which are to guide the choice of presbyters, how will there be presbyters at all who are chosen from ...
— A Source Book for Ancient Church History • Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D.

... Ginnasi of Ravenna), visiting at Florence, was brought to his house without previous introduction, by an intimate friend. The Count professed to have great mesmeric and clairvoyant faculties, and declared, in reply to Mr. Browning's avowed scepticism, that he would undertake to convince him somehow or other of his powers. He then asked Mr. Browning whether he had anything about him then and there, which he could hand to him, and which was in any way a relic or memento. This Mr. Browning thought ...
— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr

... more readily and rises more quickly than does white flour, hence bread made with it needs more careful management, as it is more liable to sour. The novice in bread-making should not undertake the preparation of bread with whole-wheat flour, until she has thoroughly mastered all the details of the art by practical experience, and can produce a ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

... he was delicate in health and had not shown the slightest evidence of "practical ability." So the summer that he took his degree, a creditable degree with honors in music, the Prices sailed for Europe to undertake one of those elaborate tasting tours of foreign lands that well-to-do American families still essay. In the autumn it concluded by the Colonel's establishing the family in Munich and returning to his affairs. Vickers had been in Europe most of the time ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... Let us get to the meat in the nut. Why do you think I am in Simiti, braving the wrath of Rosendo and others? Why have I left my comfortable quarters in Banco, to undertake a journey, long and ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... than that she will not return. That was the bald message she sent, with a suggestion that someone else must be found to serve you. To-night, it is too late to search the town for a woman willing to undertake ...
— The Brown Mask • Percy J. Brebner

... I was and am convinced, must be openly met,—not silently ignored until the mischief becomes unmanageable: met, too, by building up men in THE TRUTH: above all, by giving Theological instruction to those who are destined to become Professors of Theological Science, and are about to undertake the cure of souls.... In this spirit, I asserted the opposite fundamental verities; and so, would have been content to dismiss the "Essays and Reviews" from my ...
— Inspiration and Interpretation - Seven Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford • John Burgon

... arrival in Paris I had nothing better to do than to write for German papers a long account of the Exhibition of Pictures. I omit all discussion as to whether that interest in Art which induced me to undertake this work was so utterly irreconcilable with the revolutionary interests of the day; but Borne saw in it a proof of my indifference toward the sacred cause of humanity, and I could in my turn spoil the taste of his patriotic sauerkraut for him by talking all dinner-time of nothing ...
— The Essays of "George Eliot" - Complete • George Eliot

... He began to feel that after all he might be shirking a duty he ought to undertake. But he made ...
— The Willoughby Captains • Talbot Baines Reed

... place except the northern portion of the Veddah country. This was his world; but his knowledge of it was extremely limited, as he could not undertake to guide us farther than Oomanoo, a Veddah village, which he described as three days' journey from where we then stood. We made him point out the direction in which it lay. This he did, after looking for some moments at the sun; and, upon comparing the position with the compass, we were glad ...
— The Rifle and The Hound in Ceylon • Samuel White Baker

... solitude of the desert by a genuine deeply-felt impulse, they could regulate their lives as they would, and they possessed an almost inconceivable energy of resolution. They were prepared to live on herbs, even to eat grass, and to undertake any labour of self-denial. They were so scrupulous that we hear of a holy man who would even efface a woman's footprints in the sand lest a brother might thereby be led into thoughts of evil. Yet they were perpetually ...
— Little Essays of Love and Virtue • Havelock Ellis

... forever. He was too angry, too annoyed, for any gentle thoughts to influence him. She had left him—so much the better; there could never again be peace between them. He thought with regret of the little ones—they were too young for him to undertake charge of them, so that they were best left with their mother for a time. He said to himself that he must make the best use he could of his life; everything seemed at an end. He felt very lonely and unhappy ...
— Dora Thorne • Charlotte M. Braeme

... that it was an outrage on morals and decency, had been received, when originally published, with such a howl of execration that the publishers hastily withdrew it, and for some time it was unobtainable; but at length another firm found courage enough to undertake its reissue. To Mr. Philpot, who knew it merely by extracts, the mere mention of this volume seemed to be something in the nature of an indecency. But there is always an attraction in the forbidden. I dreamed of this volume, ...
— Memoirs of Life and Literature • W. H. Mallock

... the fort to visit the land of the Alachuas, and troubled to find that if he went with Has-se, he must do so without permission from his uncle. Nevertheless he felt certain that he, being Has-se's friend, and also regarded by the Indians as the son of the great chief of the white men, could undertake the mission with a greater chance of safety and success than any one else. He would have urged this view of the case upon his uncle's attention, but feared that speaking of the subject a second time would only ...
— The Flamingo Feather • Kirk Munroe

... you to try a little experiment for me, and if it succeeds you shall have all the glory; I've been waiting for some one to undertake it, and I fancy you are the woman. Not every one could attempt it; for it needs wealth and position, beauty and accomplishments, much tact, and more than all a heart that has not been spoilt by the world, but taught through sorrow how to ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott

... be mentioned, I want to find out all I can about him. That, I believe, is the sort of work you undertake. The terms for your services can be arranged later. It is unnecessary to say you will be well paid. I assume you can command competent and trustworthy help, that you have agents, ...
— Half A Chance • Frederic S. Isham

... becomes necessary for those who do find a meaning in checks, to defend that meaning; and hence I undertake to answer ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 186, May 21, 1853 • Various

... possessing a given quantity of cash, and every year wantonly burning the half of its produce. I will undertake to prove by the theory of Mr. de Dombasle that this nation will not be the less rich in consequence ...
— Sophisms of the Protectionists • Frederic Bastiat

... Marriages are not compulsory in this country, and any one must acknowledge that it would be easier for a strong man—and he certainly was no weakling—to refuse a woman at the nuptial altar than to undertake and carry out a scheme so full of revolting details and involving so much risk as this which we have been ...
— The Forsaken Inn - A Novel • Anna Katharine Green

... (21), good family, strong, healthy, public school, O.T.C., Varsity education, speaks English, French, Spanish perfectly, engineering training, efficient car driver and mechanic, horseman, is open to any sporting job connected with war; willing undertake any risks; no salary, ...
— Punch, 1917.07.04, Vol. 153, Issue No. 1 • Various

... stop in. I needn't tell you what drains mean. Blood-poisoning, typhoid, septic throats, breakings out in various parts of your body, and a very painful kind of death. For although O'Donoghue will do his best for you in the way of mitigating your sufferings he can't undertake to save your life." ...
— The Simpkins Plot • George A. Birmingham

... our plans are to succeed. Without absolute secrecy we shall fail. The Board of Admiralty is responsible for the sea, but not for the land. We can make certain that no news of the despatch of these two cruisers gets out at sea; can you, Mr. Chief Inspector Dawson, undertake that no news gets out on land—that no whisper of their sailing reaches the enemy by means ...
— The Lost Naval Papers • Bennet Copplestone

... not likely to do that. But I tell you what I'll do. I'll see him and Parrett and tell them about the club, and undertake that you'll be steady the rest of the term if they'll let you off. Do you think I'd be safe ...
— The Willoughby Captains • Talbot Baines Reed



Words linked to "Undertake" :   qualify, accept, go for, initiate, subvent, charter, stipulate, face up, take in charge, hire, condition, assure, sign, rise, face, tackle, guarantee, rent, specify, pioneer, confront, undertaking, take on, underwrite, promise



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