Undertaker
//ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌteɪkə(ɹ)// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A funeral director; someone whose business is to manage funerals, burials and cremations.
- 2 one whose business is the management of funerals wordnet
- 3 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. historical
"In 1588, Edmund Spenser became an undertaker in the first Elizabethan plantation, receiving the forfeited Irish estate of Kilcolman Castle."
- 4 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. historical
- 5 One who undertakes or commits to doing something. rare
"A company shall not be appointed to be a water undertaker unless it is a limited company or a statutory water company and shall not be appointed to be a sewerage undertaker unless it is a limited company."
Example
More examples"A funeral is a pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker, and strengthen our grief by an expenditure that deepens our groans and doubles our tears."
Etymology
From undertake (verb) + -er.
Related phrases
More for "undertaker"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.