a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or for a specific fee
<noun.act> estimates of the city's loss on that job ranged as high as a million dollars the job of repairing the engine took several hours the endless task of classifying the samples the farmer's morning chores [ verb ]
assign a task to
<verb.social> I tasked him with looking after the children
Task \Task\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Tasked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Tasking}.] 1. To impose a task upon; to assign a definite amount of business, labor, or duty to.
There task thy maids, and exercise the loom. --Dryden.
2. To oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax.
3. To charge; to tax, as with a fault.
Too impudent to task me with those errors. --Beau. & Fl.
Task \Task\ (t[.a]sk), n. [OE. taske, OF. tasque, F. t[^a]che, for tasche, LL. tasca, taxa, fr. L. taxare to rate, appraise, estimate. See {Tax}, n. & v.] 1. Labor or study imposed by another, often in a definite quantity or amount.
Ma task of servile toil. --Milton.
Each morning sees some task begin, Each evening sees it close. --Longfellow.
2. Business; employment; undertaking; labor.
His mental powers were equal to greater tasks. --Atterbury.
Mr. Neigum, poker-faced during the difficult task, manages a 46-second showing.
In May I proposed that both houses of Congress, both sides of the aisle, join together with our administration in a bipartisan executive-legislative task force to advance America's unified anti-drug policy.
'Obviously any charitable status of the employer or task would have a bearing on the decision,' it said. Sometimes individuals are able to incorporate unpaid work experience into government training schemes.
That is the job of a high-powered task force that is now said to be thinking the unthinkable on this and other contentious issues at Lloyd's.
Coordination is to extend to zones of operation, task sharing, logistical support and information exchanges, according to a final communique.
But the most important task at the arboretum may be breeding new plants.
But whether the technique catches on may depend on how many radiologists embrace it, as they must perform the task of inserting a catheter through the skin and into the patient's gallbladder.
Known as the RBRVS study, for Resource-Based Relative-Value Scales, the system would pay doctors based on how much work goes into a given task.
The U.S. agreement to talk with the Palestine Liberation Organization spares President-elect Bush one politically difficult decision, but gives him another arduous task: overseeing that dialogue.
But for now, the prospect of the upcoming elections does little but complicate the already problematic task of reaching a budget compromise.
Svend Jakobsen, the neutral mediator charged with sounding out eight parties on a national program, said he could not bring enough parties together to form a stable government and was giving up his task.
The management of change, which these developments will make necessary, is a big task.
He believes that the task facing Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is so difficult that it resembles "juggling a double-bladed ax and a buzz saw."
Labor Secretary McLaughlin co-chairs a new Bush task force on the future work force and advises him on child care, in hopes of reducing his gender gap.
But he says they know and respect Young. The new man certainly faces a challenging task.
That's because for fully paid stock holdings, the brokers must obtain permission from the individual customers, an arduous task, said an official at one brokerage firm.
Regan and Casey, then contacted Mr. Nir, who had provided help to Vice President Bush's task force on terrorism.
Bravin said the board would form a task force to study its own composition in reponse to student demands that deaf people comprise a majority of the 20-member panel.
The Southern California fires, the worst of which was in Santa Barbara County, conformed ominously to the forecast issued Tuesday by an unprecedented task force of statewide fire agencies.
"What is a very simple task becomes very complicated" in Chapter 11, he says.
My task today is to instil that confidence.' In some cases, it sounds as if cuts in spending are to come out of industry's hide.
While the news media focus on almost nightly gang violence, often involving innocent victims, Deputy Chief Robert Rathburn notes the drop in "drive-by" shootings since his task force roundups began.
"There must be an end to the tragic cycle of violence, a task that demands great courage and resolve from all South African leaders, black and white," he said in a speech to the 20th anniversary dinner of the Joint Center for Political Studies.
A key recommendation of the task force is that banks report suspicions, either to the police or to specialist bodies in some countries, such as the Tracfin unit in the French Finance Ministry.
Advancing that task beyond any particular time frame is the objective of the International Congress on World Evangelization, which is meeting Tuesday through July 20 in Manila, the Philippines.
The study was delivered at a Senate Labor task force hearing on the workforce and workplace readiness.
"Such a task requires from us all our courage, energy, imagination and politically creative will," said Seiters.
In any event, the reduction of VOCs is a Sisyphean task. Natural VOCs are emitted by trees and plants, and some investigators believe these exceed man-made emissions.
He gave the task force until Aug. 1 to complete this task.
He gave the task force until Aug. 1 to complete this task.