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task - What does it mean?

Definition of '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.
    • (rfex)

    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

    (der-top) * multitasking * subtask * task force * take to task (der-mid) * taskable * taskbody * tasklet * taskmaster (der-bottom)

    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

    * * *

    Similar to 'task'

    tick, thick, took, teek, tack, tik, thack, teak, tweak, tusk, tuck, tyek, tweek, tock, tteok, tsk, tawk, thock, thwok, teuk