I. ˈtask, ˈtaa(ə)sk, ˈtaisk, ˈtȧsk noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English taske, tasque, from Old North French tasque, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin tasca task, remuneration, alteration of taxa, from Latin taxare to touch, feel, rate, compute — more at tax
1.
a. : a specific piece or amount of work usually assigned by another and often required or expected to be finished within a certain time
the tasks that were set for chemistry at last year's examination for the school-leaving certificate of the high schools — Journal of Chem. Education
a novel … I had once read as a school holiday task — Adrian Bell
b. : something that has to be done or needs to be done and usually involves some difficulty or problem
Greece … passed on to Macedon and thence to Rome that task of reconciling the individual and the class with the whole — G.L.Dickinson
: something hard or unpleasant to do
deciphering some people's handwriting is quite a task
c. : the job allotted to someone as his duty or to some inanimate thing as its proper function
forecasting is … one of the most important tasks of the statistician in business — M.K.Adler
every inch of material … from crypt to vault … had its task — Henry Adams
2. obsolete : tax , impost
3. : subjection to adverse criticism : reprimand — used in the expressions to take, call, or bring one to task
4. : the performance that is required of the subject in a psychological experiment or test and that is usually made known to a human subject by verbal instructions
5. : a definite usually operational objective assigned to a unit or group of units in the armed forces
6. : a set of actions performed to accomplish a specific purpose whose accomplishment is one of the duties though usually not the only duty of an employee holding a particular position
Synonyms:
duty , assignment , job , stint , chore : task refers to a specific piece of work or service usually imposed by authority or circumstance, sometimes undertaken voluntarily
some person or some organization whose task it is to realize the daydreams of the masses — Aldous Huxley
the spirit in which judge or advocate is to look upon his task — B.N.Cardozo
duty is likely to indicate work, service, or conduct enjoined on a person because of his rank, status, occupation, or affiliation; it is likely in most uses to suggest obligation, often moral
it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is — John Marshall
some of the military branches having a preferred status … had higher pay scales for less dangerous duties — Kingsley Davis
assignment suggests a specific amount of work or sort of service assigned authoritatively
it is not our assignment to settle specific questions of territories — H.S.Truman
job is a general term wide in suggestion ranging from voluntary undertaking of some signal service down to an assigned bit of menial work
a job that suffers from some relative poverty in charm, such as totting up endless small sums at a desk or feeding coal in at the door of a furnace — C.E.Montague
stint stresses carefully or equitably measured or timed apportionment of work
took to doing “German Romance” as my daily work, ten pages daily my stint — Thomas Carlyle
chore is likely to suggest minor routine activity necessary for continuing satisfactory operating, as of a farm or office
leisure after the chores and happy meeting places where the farmer and his family might play — Roger Burlingame
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English tasken, from taske, tasque, n.
1. obsolete : tax
2. : to impose a task upon : assign a definite amount of business, labor, or duty to
there task thy maids, and exercise the loom — John Dryden
3.
a. obsolete : reprimand
b. archaic : accuse , charge — often used with with
too impudent to task me with those errors — Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher
4.
a. : to oppress with great labor : keep busy at or as if at a task : burden
tasks his mind with details
b. : to test as by the imposition of a burden