- task
- nounADJECTIVE▪ awesome, challenging, daunting, enormous, formidable, great, Herculean, huge, mammoth (esp. BrE), massive, monumental▪ arduous, demanding, difficult, hard, laborious, onerous, stiff (BrE), time-consuming, tough, uphill (esp. BrE)▪ dangerous, hazardous (esp. BrE)▪ basic, easy, simple, small, trivial▪
the simple task of making a sandwich
▪ menial, mundane, repetitive, routine, tedious▪ complex, complicated▪ delicate, tricky▪ hopeless, impossible▪ daily, day-to-day, everyday, routine▪ central, fundamental, important, main, major, primary, principal▪The primary task of the chair is to ensure the meeting runs smoothly.
▪ critical, crucial, essential, key, vital▪ immediate, urgent▪ pleasant▪ thankless, unenviable, unpleasant▪ grim▪the grim task of identifying the dead
▪ administrative, domestic, household, manual▪ self-appointedVERB + TASK▪ handle, take on, take upon yourself (esp. BrE), undertake▪Nobody was willing to take on such a thankless task.
▪ approach, face, get to grips with (esp. BrE), tackle▪How do you tackle a task like that?
▪ begin, start▪ carry out, do, fulfil/fulfill, get on with, perform▪I left her to get on with the task of correcting the errors.
▪ accomplish, complete, finish, succeed in▪ cope with▪ fail, fail at, fail in▪ allocate, assign (sb), delegate, entrust sb with, give sb, set sb▪She failed to complete the task that she had been set.
▪ be charged with, be faced with, have▪She was charged with the important task of telling the children.
▪ be engaged in▪I was engaged in the delicate task of clipping the dog's claws.
▪ help in, help sb with▪ be suited to▪His thick fingers were not well suited to the task.
TASK + VERB▪ involve sth, require sth▪The task requires a variety of skills and experience.
▪ fall to sb▪The unenviable task of telling my parents fell to my teacher.
▪ confront sb, face sb▪The team have no illusions about the size of the task confronting them.
PREPOSITION▪ task for▪a hard task for the committee
▪ task in▪one of the first tasks in language learning
PHRASES▪ be no easy task▪Translating the letter was no easy task.
▪ the task ahead, the task at hand (esp. AmE), the task before us, the task in hand (BrE)▪We need to think realistically about the task ahead.
▪We should stop chatting and get back to the task in/at hand.
Collocations dictionary. 2013.
