undertaker

[uhn-der-tey-ker, uhn-der-tey-ker]

noun

1. funeral director.

2. a person who undertakes something.

undertaker

/ ˈʌndəˌteɪkə /

noun

1. a person whose profession is the preparation of the dead for burial or cremation and the management of funerals; funeral director

Word History and Origins

Origin of undertaker¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; undertake, -er ¹

Example Sentences

She would also make a “good detective, spy, and criminal mastermind. And undertaker.”

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Doing so was the role of the undertaker, Van Der Zee explains, though the photographer had his own aesthetic duties.

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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.

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Every autumn, as leaves turn from green to auburn and float to the ground, we turn into a nation of outdoor undertakers.

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“I had so much metal inside me, I thought I wouldn’t need a burial when I died—the undertaker could just pop me in the recycling bin,” he quips in “Last Rites.”

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