undertaker
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of undertaker
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at undertake, -er 1
Explanation
An undertaker is someone who prepares a body for burial or cremation. When a loved one dies, you'll have to visit an undertaker. An undertaker doesn't literally "take you under" after you die, but he or she does prepare your body for burial or cremation and assists a family with all aspects of funeral arrangements. If someone in your family dies, an undertaker can help you decide between burial and cremation. An undertaker can help plan a wake and the details of the funeral service. Undertakers help you select a coffin or urn. Of course, you will be making those choices for someone else — not for yourself.
Vocabulary lists containing undertaker
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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The Stranger
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Bronx Masquerade
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sentencing him at Hull Crown Court, Judge Justice Hilliard told the former undertaker he had "caused anguish and pain on a scale beyond comprehension".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Many former customers said Bush had presented as the archetypal, caring undertaker; a point noted by Hull West and Haltemprice MP Emma Hardy.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Recalls a peeved Mr. Blankfein: “It was like the undertaker calling at your sickbed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
A local undertaker said the embalmed remains of the Iranian sailors were being sent back in sealed boxes.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
Then she told him he’d have to go to the undertaker tomorrow to bring the coffin back in a carriage.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Now undertakers are offering dedicated spaces to families.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
Metz, chief executive of Meine Erde, has spent the past five-plus years crisscrossing Germany, trying to persuade lawmakers and medics, undertakers and religious authorities to approve human composting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
A mother whose stillborn baby was discovered in a Hull undertakers almost two years after his funeral says she is trying to forgive the man responsible.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2025
Modern Western culture caricatures vultures as undertakers, grim harbingers of death and hardly ideal images of maternal love.
From Salon ● May 11, 2025
“Have you ever been to a school for undertakers, Chester?”
From "Mississippi Trial, 1955" by Chris Crowe
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
