task

plural tasks

1. countableA piece of work done as part of one’s duties.

   daily task, monotonous task, regular task, parental task

   1 more example

   The employee refused to complete the assignment, arguing that it was not one of the tasks listed in her job description.

   Synonyms: assignment, chore, job

   1. uncountableA state of diligence in work on a task.

      I put him to task on the chores.

      Synonyms: assignment, chore, job

   2. countableAny piece of work done.

      complete a task

      2 more examples

      carry out a task

      Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.

      2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34

      Synonyms: assignment, chore, job

   3. countableA single action undertaken by a given agent.

      Each member of the team completed tasks in service of the goal.

      1 more example

      [T]here is a well-defined run in which the stages of Atalanta’s run are punctuated by finite rests, arguably showing the possibility of completing an infinite series of finite tasks in a finite time

      2002 April 30, “Zeno’s Paradoxes”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Synonyms: assignment, chore, job

   4. countableA difficult or tedious undertaking; a substantial project.

      Solving the economy is an enormous task for the ministry.

      3 more examples

      Getting him to change his behavior will be quite a task for you.

      I'm currently working on the task she gave me, alphabetizing all of those print files.

      As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.

      2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

      Synonyms: assignment, chore, job

   5. countableAn objective or duty.

      Your task is the elimination of the termites.

      Synonyms: assignment, chore, job, goal, objective, see: Thesaurus:goal

   6. countablecomputingA process or execution of a program.

      The user killed the frozen task.

      Synonyms: assignment, chore, job, process

2. uncountableState of being subject to reprimands.

   call to task, take to task

   3 more examples

   I will put him to task for what he's done.

   Can she hold us to task for that?

   I hope somebody has brought him to task by now.

   Synonyms: hot seat

3. countableobsoleteA tax or charge.

   Art thou the Collector of the Kings taske? […] Thou haſt thy taske money for all that be heere, […]

   1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I

   Synonyms: levy

present singular third person tasks · participle present tasking · participle past tasked · past tasked

1. transitiveTo assign a task to; to impose a task on.

   On my first day in the office, I was tasked with sorting a pile of invoices.

   3 more examples

   All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come / To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, / To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride / On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task / Ariel and all his quality.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   There task thy maids, and exercise the loom.

   a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Last Parting of Hector and Andromache. From the Sixth Book of the Iliad.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC

   By 1966 the building was considered so unsafe that the Royal Engineers were tasked with demolishing it.

   2021 May 19, “Network News: HS2 unearths 900 years of history in Buckinghamshire”, in RAIL, number 931, page 23

2. transitiveTo oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax

   He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 36, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   1. obsoletetransitiveTo institute a tax on.

      Synonyms: levy, tax

3. transitiveTo charge, as with a fault.

   Too impudent to task me with those errors.

   c. 1619–1621, John Fletcher, “The Island Princesse”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene iii

1. alternativeAlternative form of taisch.