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to take in hand; to begin to perform; to set about; to attempt. To second, or oppose, or undertake The perilous attempt. Milton.

One who undertakes; one who engages in any project or business. Beau. & Fl.

To come about, to occur; to take place. See under Come. -- To go about, To set about, to undertake; to arrange; to prepare. "Shall we set about some revels Shak. -- Round about, in every direction around.

With deliberate purpose; purposely; by design. "Advisedly undertaken." Suckling.

A statement by a party of what he undertakes to prove, -- usually applied to each separate averment; the charge or matter undertaken to be proved.

To undertake, as by a promise. Burrill.

A hindrance or disappointment; a check. A balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker. South.

Counselor at law; a counsel admitted to plead at the bar, and undertake the public trial of causes, as distinguished from an attorney or solicitor. See Attorney. [Eng.]

other purposes. -- To have one's cake dough, to fail or be disappointed in what one has undertaken or expected. Shak.

A scientific study of children, undertaken for the purpose of discovering the laws of development of the body and the mind from birth to manhood.

defraud; -- followed by of, or out of; as, to chouse one out of his money. [Colloq.] The undertaker of the afore-cited poesy hath choused your highness. Landor.

ddicted to public brawling and quarreling. See Brawler. -- Common carrier (Law), one who undertakes the office of carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all losses and injuries to the good…

One who undertakes to confute. Milton.

ration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights. Wharton.

Any one of the military expeditions undertaken by Christian powers, in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Mohammedans.

To have courage for; to attempt courageously; to venture to do or to undertake. What high concentration of steady feeling makes men dare every thing and do anything Bagehot. To wrest it from barbarism, to dare its solitudes. The Century.

To put or turn aside; to turn off or away from; to refuse to undertake or comply with; reject; to shun; to avoid; as, to decline an offer; to decline a contest; he declined any participation with them. Could I Decline this dreadful hour Massinger.

erested and persevering application; devoted and painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken; assiduity in service. That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. Shak.

equate; as, in a perfect body none of the limbs are disproportionate; it is wisdom not to undertake a work disproportionate means. -- Dis`pro*por"tion*ate*ly, adv. -- Dis`pro*por"tion*ate*ness, n.

I am for curing the world by gentle alteratives, not by violent doses. W. Irving. I dare undertake that as fulsome a dose as you give him, he shall readily take it down. South.