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n. 1. A piece of work assigned or done as part of one's duties. 2. A difficult or tedious undertaking: Finding qualified people to fill these specialized roles was a real task. 3. A function to be performed; an objective: It is our task to renew consumer confidence. tr.v. tasked, task·ing, tasks Idiom: 1. To assign a task to or impose a task on: The agency was tasked with creating an advertising campaign. 2. Archaic To subject to strain or hardship: "The Professor's household was a modest one, and yet it tasked his ideas to keep it up to his wife's standard" (Edith Wharton). take/call/bring to task To reprimand or censure. [Middle English taske, imposed work, tax, from Old North French tasque, from Vulgar Latin *tasca, alteration of *taxa, from Latin taxāre, to feel, reproach, reckon; see TAX.] Synonyms: task, job1, chore, assignment These nouns denote a piece of work that one must do. A task is a well-defined responsibility that is usually imposed by another and that may be burdensome: I stayed at work late to finish the task at hand. Job often suggests a specific short-term undertaking: "did little jobs about the house with skill" (W.H. Auden). Chore generally denotes a minor or routine job: The farmer's morning chores included milking the cows. Assignment generally denotes a task allotted by a person in authority: His homework assignment involved writing an essay. |
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