Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - task

(tasks, tasking tasked) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. A task is an activity or piece of work which you have to do, usually as part of a larger project. She used the day to catch up with administrative tasks. N-COUNT: usu N of -ing, supp N 2. If you are tasked with doing a particular activity or piece of work, someone in authority asks you to do it. The minister was tasked with checking that British aid money was being spent wisely. VERB: be V-ed with n/-ing 3. If you take someone to task, you criticize them or tell them off because of something bad or wrong that they have done. The country’s intellectuals are also being taken to task for their failure to speak out against the regime. = rebuke PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR for n/-ing