undertaker

C2 Topic:Work & Careers
US /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌteɪkə(ɹ)/
noun Freq #16012

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    one whose business is the management of funerals

    The undertaker arranged the burial before noon.

  2. 2
    noun

    A funeral director; someone whose business is to manage funerals, burials and cremations.

    The undertaker arranged the burial before noon.

  3. 3
    noun

    A person receiving land in Ireland during the Elizabethan era, so named because they gave an undertaking to abide by several conditions regarding marriage, to be loyal to the crown, and to use English as their spoken language.

    In 1588, Edmund Spenser became an undertaker in the first Elizabethan plantation, receiving the forfeited Irish estate of Kilcolman Castle.

  4. 4
    noun

    A contractor for the royal revenue in England, one of those who undertook to manage the House of Commons for the king in the Addled Parliament of 1614.

    The undertaker arranged the burial before noon.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · one whose business is the... mortician
2 noun · a funeral director; someone... cold cookmortician
Word family
Derived forms undertaker'sundertakerishundertakerly
Related forms undertakeundertaking

Etymology

From undertake (verb) + -er.

Topics

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