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Herculean vs Task - What's the difference?

herculean | task |

As an adjective herculean

is (herculean).

As a noun task is

a piece of work done as part of one’s duties.

As a verb task is

to assign a task to, or impose a task on.

herculean

English

Alternative forms

* * herculean

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of extraordinary might, power, size, etc.; of or relating to Hercules in size or strength.
  • * 1607 , Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, i 3 :
    • But this is not the best:--look, pr'ythee, Charmian, / How this Herculean Roman does become / The carriage of his chafe.
  • * (rfdate) :
    • It was truly a Herculean effort. I never thought it was going to happen, but it did.
  • Requiring a huge amount of work; of extraordinary difficulty.
    • a Herculean''' labour'', ''a '''Herculean task
  • * 1748, Tobias George Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random
    • He replied in a dry manner, that I would find it a Herculean task to chastise everybody who should laugh at my expense;
  • * 2006 : Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear , commenting on the Bugatti Veyron
    • The guys at Volkswagen have a Herculean task.

    task

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A piece of work done as part of one’s duties.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= A new prescription , passage=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.}}
  • A difficult or tedious undertaking.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
    • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=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.}}
  • An objective.
  • (computing) A process or execution of a program.

    • Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "task": difficult, easy, simple, hard, tough, complex, not-so-easy, challenging, complicated, tricky, formidable, arduous, laborious, onerous, small, big, huge, enormous, tremendous, gigantic, mammoth, colossal, gargantuan, social, intellectual, theological, important, basic, trivial, unpleasant, demanding, pleasant, noble, painful, grim, responsible, rewarding, boring, ungrateful, delightful, glorious, agreeable.

    Synonyms

    * (piece of work) chore * (difficult undertaking) undertaking * (objective) objective, goal * (process) process

    Derived terms

    * multitasking * subtask * task force * take to task * taskable * taskbody * tasklet * taskmaster

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To assign a task to, or impose a task on.
    • On my first day in the office, I was tasked with sorting a pile of invoices.
  • * 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
    • 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.
  • * Dryden
    • There task thy maids, and exercise the loom.
  • To oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax.
  • To charge, as with a fault.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • Too impudent to task me with those errors.

    Anagrams

    * * *