Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use undertake in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Undertake means to take upon oneself; to start, to embark on. Example: “They undertook the new venture, not sure where it would lead.”

Examples of undertake by meaning

verbTo take upon oneself; to start, to embark on.

  • They undertook the new venture, not sure where it would lead.
  • They undertook cleaning the house room by room.

verbTo commit oneself (to an obligation, activity etc.).

  • He undertook to exercise more in future.
  • They undertook to clean the house room by room.

More sentences with undertake

  • The cold truth is that states rarely undertake military action unless their national interests are at stake.From the entry cold
  • The building's developers have asked for some archaeology to be undertaken.From the entry archaeology
  • Having found the lower court's analysis wrong, the appellate court undertook a review de novo.From the entry de novo
  • Comrade Lenin inspired our people to undertake great works.From the entry comrade
  • He was signaling his readiness to undertake daring tasks.From the entry signaling
  • Tenants have a right to breach a landlord for a failure to undertake necessary maintenance.2025 February 27, “Tenant rental rights you need to know about”, in RentCover. From the entry breach
  • Because they had been in storage, they had not undertaken their time-based overhaul, which had been due.2025 August 6, Richard Wilcock, “Old units... new lease of life”, in RAIL, number 1041, page 31. From the entry recommission
  • They had also not undertaken their mileage-based overhaul, which was also due for all the sets.2025 August 6, Richard Wilcock, “Old units... new lease of life”, in RAIL, number 1041, page 31. From the entry recommission
  • Members also agreed that they would not undertake any non-contracted overtime.2025 November 12, Richard Wilcock, “CrossCountry opens internal investigation after ASLEF dispute”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 9. From the entry non-contracted
  • Wildfire Service, undertook a large-scale, 12-square-kilometre prescribed burn on Aq'am lands north of the St.2024 April 26, Corey Bullock, “Fear rekindled in Ktunaxa Nation community as fire season begins”, in CBC News. From the entry Aq'am
  • But, as Mands explains, the journey has been one that HSG has been almost obligated to undertake.2023 December 27, Richard Foster, “New rail freight terminal leads the way”, in RAIL, number 999, page 39. From the entry journey
  • A man of his temperament does not lightly undertake even a companioned isolation in a winter land.2022, Katharine Newlin Burt, The Branding Iron. From the entry companioned
  • Steve Sisolak undertook to fight the pandemic were, and remain, “criminal.”2022 March 11, Bill Dentzer, “‘Trump from the jump:’ Reno lawyer and ex-boxer fights to become governor”, in Las Vegas Review-Journal…. From the entry Fauci ouchie
  • Railway workers were therefore a perfect subject for research, given the varied roles they undertook.2020 April 8, David Turner, “How Railway Staff were Conduits and Victims of a Pandemic”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer…. From the entry contraction
  • Both sides try to assure themselves of radical differences because they undertake similar actions.2017, Cyberspace Crime, page D.S wall. From the entry anti-hacker
  • They improved on their UFOV test and undertook fewer dangerous maneuvers in an open-road driving evaluation.2014, Joan T. Erber, Lenore T. Szuchman, Great Myths of Aging, page 18. From the entry open-road
  • According to an internal study undertaken by bronies themselves, 19.05 per cent of respondents engaged in clopping.2013 September 9, Thomas Raethel, “The Mysterious World of Bronies”, in Critic, number 22, University of Otago, page 33. From the entry clopping
  • The third precept undertaken by the novice is abstaining from incelibacy.2013, William M. Johnston, Encyclopedia of Monasticism, →ISBN. From the entry incelibacy
  • If placenta praevia is identified, further imaging should be undertaken to ascertain the presence of placenta accreta.2011, David Levy, “8: Obstetric Haemorrhage”, in Ian Johnston, William Harrop-Griffiths, Leslie Gemmell, editors, AAGBI Core Topics in…. From the entry placenta praevia
  • “We are going to undertake an exploration of the Bard's poetic structure and language,” Mom went on.2010, Erin Dionne, The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry bard
  • Shockworkers undertook longer shifts and worked at a faster pace than ordinary workers, thereby exceeding production norms.2009, Maria Gough, “Production”, in Jeffrey T[hompson] Schnapp, editor, Speed Limits, Milan: Skira, →ISBN, “Speed Writings” section, page…. From the entry shockworker
  • Hilton in a house, where they will undertake tasks to prove their friendlike qualities.2008 March 15, Edward Wyatt, “Return From the Serious Life: Reality TV Has Paris Hilton Again”, in New York Times. From the entry friendlike
  • Much of the early work on roundpole construction was undertaken by Buro Happold at Hooke Park.2008, Sandy Halliday, Sustainable Construction, →ISBN, page 156. From the entry roundpole
  • Consolidates the Federal Reserve Banks (FED) and monetary authority functions undertaken by the central government.2006, International Financial Statistics Yearbook 2006, International Monetary Fund, →ISBN, page 191. From the entry fed
  • Preventive maintenance will normally be undertaken while the facility is out of operation.2002, Ray Wild, “Maintenance and replacement” (chapter 21), in Essentials of Operations Management, 5th edition, London: Thomson Learning…. From the entry inoperation
  • We here review work on the discretization of affine geometries which was undertaken in collaboration with A.2001, W. K. Schief, “An Introduction to Integrable Difference and Differential Geometries”, in Alan Coley et al., editors, Bäcklund and…. From the entry affine geometry
  • Beard, undertook a philanthropy designed to build solidly on a British base.1988, Merle [Eugene] Curti, “For Welfare and Culture”, in American Philanthropy Abroad (Society and Philanthropy Series), New Brunswick…. From the entry philanthropy
  • The latter eventually prevailed and no military moves against Yang were undertaken.1976, James B. Parsons, “YANG Ying-lung [楊應龍]”, in L. Carrington Goodrich, Chaoying Fang, editors, Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368-1644…. From the entry P'eng-shui
  • We are consulting urgently with others to consider what steps should be undertaken in the United Nations.1968, President Lyndon Johnson, 18:22 from the start, in The President: August 1968. MP899 (1280x720), via Lyndon Baines Johnson Library…. From the entry Czechoslovakia
  • Any objective explanation of the logic of this term as undertaken, for instance, by F.1959, Wilhelm Röpke, International Order and Economic Integration, →ISBN, page 218. From the entry polypragmatism
  • But so many have been irretrievably spoiled by ill-advised and crudely undertaken alterations and additions!1933 December, Daniel O. Brewster, “Monograph Six: The Cottages of Cape Ann—Part I”, in Pencil Points: An Illustrated Journal for the…. From the entry plumbered
  • Joyce has, therefore, undertaken here to study the subconscious mind in its most unimpeded forms.[1929 fall, Harold J. Salemson, “James Joyce and the New Word”, in V. F. Calverton [pseudonym; George Goetz], S[amuel] D. Schmalhausen…. From the entry consciousnesslessness
  • Harold was pertinacious if not determined in this doubtful enterprise, so naïfly undertaken.1925, The Oxford Outlook, page 102. From the entry naïfly
  • Facebook, for its part, maintains that the data-collection activity its Research app undertook was aboveboard and not at all duplicitous.2019 January 31, Ian Bogost, “Apple’s Empty Grandstanding About Privacy”, in The Atlantic. From the entry aboveboard
  • However, if the flow of water increases and the sand boil begins to discharge material, remedial actions should be undertaken immediately.2015, Sheng-Hong Chen, “Operation and Maintenance of Hydraulic Structures”, in Hydraulic Structures, Heidelberg: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN…. From the entry sand boil
  • If a buried cable is damaged it will be necessary to detrench it before repair can be undertaken.2015, Jose Chesnoy, Undersea Fiber Communication Systems, →ISBN, page 642. From the entry detrench

Meaning of undertake

  1. verb To take upon oneself; to start, to embark on.
  2. verb To commit oneself (to an obligation, activity etc.).
  3. verb To pass a slower moving vehicle on the curbside rather than on the side closest to oncoming traffic.

Full definition of undertake

Questions about undertake in a sentence

How do you use undertake in a sentence?
Undertake is used as a verb and noun. For example: “They undertook the new venture, not sure where it would lead.”
What is a short sentence with undertake?
“He undertook to exercise more in future.”
What does undertake mean?
Undertake means to take upon oneself; to start, to embark on.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: undertake (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use undertake in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/undertake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.