Undertake vs Seek - What's the difference?
undertake | seek |
(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
(lb) To try to find, to look for, to search.
:
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= (label) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
:
*Bible, (w) xi. 16
*:Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.
*1960 , (Lobsang Rampa), :
*:“My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.
(lb) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
:
*1880 , , :
*:But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.
*1886 , Constantine Popoff, translation of (Leo Tolstoy)'s :
*:I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.
*
*:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
:
*, Bk.V:
*:Ryght so he sought towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes
(lb) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.
*:
*:Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
*1726
*:Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains
As verbs the difference between undertake and seek
is that undertake is (label) to take upon oneself; to start, to embark on (a specific task etc) while seek is (lb) to try to find, to look for, to search.undertake
English
Verb
Usage notes
* Sense: To commit oneself. This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. * SeeDerived terms
* undertaker * undertakingseek
English
Verb
Catherine Clabby
Focus on Everything, passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
(tr.), (Alexander Pope), ''(Homer)'s (Odyssey), Book II, line 33