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Adopt vs Undertake - What's the difference?

adopt | undertake |

In transitive terms the difference between adopt and undertake

is that adopt is to select and take or approve while undertake is to take upon oneself; to start, to embark on (a specific task etc.).

As verbs the difference between adopt and undertake

is that adopt is to take by choice into relationship, as, child, heir, friend, citizen, etc while undertake is to take upon oneself; to start, to embark on (a specific task etc.).

adopt

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (with relationship specified) To take by choice into relationship, child, heir, friend, citizen, etc.
  • (with relationship implied by context) To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.
  • A friend of mine recently adopted a Chinese baby girl found on the streets of Beijing.
  • (with relationship implied by context) To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild.
  • We're going to adopt a Dalmatian.
  • (with relationship implied by context) To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility.
  • This supermarket chain adopts several families every Yuletide, providing them with money and groceries for the holidays.
  • To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.(rfex)
  • * '>citation
  • To select and take or approve.
  • to adopt the view or policy of another
    These resolutions were adopted .

    undertake

    English

    Verb

  • (label) To take upon oneself; to start, to embark on (a specific task etc.).
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:To second, or oppose, or undertake / The perilous attempt.
  • (label) To commit oneself (to an obligation, activity etc.).
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:I'll undertake to land them on our coast.
  • (label) To overtake on the wrong side.
  • :
  • To pledge; to assert, assure; to dare say.
  • *, Bk.VII:
  • *:"I have now aspyed one knyght," he seyde, "that woll play hys play at the justys, I undirtake ."
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:And those two counties I will undertake / Your grace shall well and quietly enjoiy.
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:And he was not right fat, I undertake .
  • * (1665-1728)
  • *:I dare undertake they will not lose their labour.
  • To take by trickery; to trap, to seize upon.
  • *:
  • *:there came fourty knyghtes to sire Darras // So sire Tristram endured there grete payne / for sekenesse had vndertake hym / and that is the grettest payne a prysoner maye haue
  • (label) To assume, as a character; to take on.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (label) To engage with; to attack.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to.
  • (label) To have knowledge of; to hear.
  • :(Spenser)
  • (label) To have or take charge of.
  • *(Geoffrey Chaucer) (c.1343-1400)
  • *:Keep well those that ye undertake .
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:who undertakes you to your end
  • Usage notes

    * Sense: To commit oneself. This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. * See

    Derived terms

    * undertaker * undertaking