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give boldness or courage to; to encourage. Shak. The self-conceit which emboldened him to undertake this dangerous office. Sir W. Scott.

The qualifies which prompt one to undertake difficult and dangerous exploits. I love thy courage yet and bolt emprise; But here thy sword can do thee little stead. Milton.

That which is undertaken; something attempted to be performed; a work projected which involves activity, courage, energy, and the like; a bold, arduous, or hazardous attempt; an undertaking; as, a manly enterprise; a warlike enterprise. Shak. Their hands can not perform their enterprise. Job v. 12.

One who undertakes enterprises. Sir J. Hayward.

One who creates a product on his own account; whoever undertakes on his own account an industrial enterprise in which workmen are employed. F. A. Walker.

doubtful; esp., one under conditions determined by the experimenter; an act or operation undertaken in order to discover some unknown principle or effect, or to test, establish, or illustrate some suggest or known truth; practical test; poof. A political experiment can not be made in a laboratory, not determinant in a…

he act or system of insuring against fire; also, a contract by which an insurance company undertakes, in consideration of the payment of a premium or small percentage -- usually made periodically -- to indemnify an owner of property from loss by fire during a specified period. -- Fire irons, utensils for a fireplace o…

ital; a sum of money appropriated as the foundation of some commercial or other operation undertaken with a view to profit; that reserve by means of which expenses and credit are supported; as, the fund of a bank, commercial house, manufacturing corporation, etc.

To apply one's self; to set one's self; to undertake. Seeing himself confronted by so many, like a resolute orator, he went not to denial, but to justify his cruel falsehood. Sir P. Sidney.

In law and common usage: to undertake or engage for the payment of (a debt) or the performance of (a duty) by another person; to undertake to secure (a possession, right, claim, etc.) to another against a specified contingency, or at all avents; to give a guarantee concerning; to engage, assure, or secure as a thing th…

In law and common usage: To undertake or engage that another person shall perform (what he hass stipulated); to undertake to be answerable for (the debt or default of another); to engage to answer for the performance of (some promise or duty by another) in case of a failure by the latter to perform; to undertake to sec…

he last corrections in; to complete; to perfect. -- To set the hand to, to engage in; to undertake. That the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to. Deut. xxiii. 20. -- To stand one in hand, to concern or affect one. -- To strike hands, to make a contract, or to become surety for another's…

ality of being an idiot; absence, or marked deficiency, of sense and intelligence. I will undertake to convict a man of idiocy, if he can not see the proof that three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. F. W. Robertson.

gent event; a contract whereby, for a stipulated consideration, called premium, one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss by certain specified risks. Cf. Assurance, n., 6.

The system which undertakes to cure a disease by means of the virus of the same disease.

A piece of chance or occasional work; any definite work undertaken in gross for a fixed price; as, he did the job for a thousand dollars.

To set or put on shore from a ship or other water craft; to disembark; to debark. I 'll undertake top land them on our coast. Shak.

One who undertakes to discharge a specific business commission; a mandatory. Wharton.

lse pretender; a charlatan; a quack. Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks will undertake. Arbuthnot.

A person employed by undertakers at a funeral.