undertaker

noun un·der·tak·er \ ˌən-dər-ˈtā-kər , sense 2 is ˈən-dər-ˌtā- \

Definition of undertaker

1 : one who undertakes : one who takes the risk and management of business : entrepreneur

2 : one whose business is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals

3 : an Englishman taking over forfeited lands in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries

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Examples of undertaker in a Sentence

the undertaker wore black clothes and a solemn expression

Recent Examples of undertaker from the Web

But a gender-swap role as the undertaker’s son in Oliver managed to sway her ambitions toward the dramatic.

— chelsea stone, Glamour, "Kristen Bell Kicked Off the 2018 SAG Awards With a Hilarious All-Female Intro," 21 Jan. 2018
Abdel-Hafiz Mohammed, who kept his job as undertaker throughout the militants’ rule, has carved approximately 2,000 headstones for the al-Jadidah graveyard since October 2016.

— Washington Post, "Mosul is a graveyard: Final IS battle kills 9,000 civilians," 20 Dec. 2017
Abdel-Hafiz Mohammed, who kept his job as undertaker throughout the militants’ rule, has carved approximately 2,000 headstones for the al-Jadidah graveyard alone since October 2016, the month the battle began.

— USA TODAY, "9,000-plus died in battle with Islamic State group for Mosul," 20 Dec. 2017
Abdel-Hafiz Mohammed, who kept his job as undertaker throughout the militants' rule, has carved approximately 2,000 headstones for the al-Jadidah graveyard alone since October 2016, the month the battle began.

— chicagotribune.com, "Mosul's gravediggers say civilian death toll from battle against Islamic State nearly 10 times higher than reported," 20 Dec. 2017
Part of the reason the funeral industry buried the community undertaker was because death doesn’t jibe with the modern American vision and those Americans who embrace it.

— caleb wilde, The Cut, "Being a Funeral Director Made Me Realize the Death Industry Is Too Exclusive," 29 Sep. 2017
After the city fell to IS in 2014, undertakers like him handled the victims of beheadings and stonings; there were men accused of homosexuality who had been flung from rooftops.

— Washington Post, "Mosul is a graveyard: Final IS battle kills 9,000 civilians," 20 Dec. 2017
After the city fell to IS in 2014, undertakers like him handled the victims of beheadings and stonings; there were men accused of homosexuality who had been flung from rooftops.

— USA TODAY, "9,000-plus died in battle with Islamic State group for Mosul," 20 Dec. 2017
After the city fell to IS in 2014, undertakers like him handled the victims of beheadings and stonings; there were men accused of homosexuality who had been flung from rooftops.

— chicagotribune.com, "Mosul's gravediggers say civilian death toll from battle against Islamic State nearly 10 times higher than reported," 20 Dec. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'undertaker.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

You may wonder how the word undertaker made the transition from "one who undertakes" to "one who makes a living in the funeral business." The latter meaning descends from the use of the word to mean "one who takes on business responsibilities." In the 18th century, a funeral-undertaker was someone who undertook, or managed, a funeral business. There were many undertakers in those days, undertaking all sorts of businesses, but as time went on undertaker became specifically identified with the profession of arranging burial. Today, "funeral director" is more commonly used, but undertaker still appears.