taskforcen.
/ˈtɑːskfɔːs/, /ˈtaskfɔːs/, U.S. /ˈtæskˌfɔrs/ Originally U.S.
1. Chiefly in form task force. A military unit, frequently comprising units drawn from more than one branch of a country's armed forces or from more than one country, organized under a unified command to carry out a specific mission. Often in the names of particular units, with identifying number or letter as postmodifier.
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1927 Joint Action Army & Navy (U.S. Joint Board) iii. 9 When air units of the Army and Navy are combined into one task force for the accomplishment of a common mission, the commander assigning the mission shall designate an officer to exercise unity of command over such task force.
1940 Helena (Montana) Daily Independent 15 Oct. 7/4 Part of ‘task force No. 1’—that portion of the United States fleet which has been in California waters for 2 weeks for overhaul and vacation—started back towards Hawaii today.
1977 Mil. Affairs Dec. 199/2 His diaries are especially revealing on the operations of British Task Force ‘H’ in the Mediterranean (September 1940-March 1941).
1993 Middle Eastern Stud. 29 513 The establishment of a NATO task force to assume a peacekeeping role in Cyprus.
2019 N. Uskowi Temperature Rising 59 A new task force, known as Task Force 17, was established by JSOC [sc. Joint Special Operations Command] to counter Quds Force activities in Iraq. The task force succeeded in arresting a number of the militia.
2. In extended use: any group of people (especially one comprising experts or specialists) organized to carry out a special task, solve a particular problem, etc.; an investigative committee.
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1942 Fortune Nov. 64/1 From the 400 agencies that have placed their facilities at the disposal of the Council the coordinator chooses a task force, whose job is to create a complete advertising campaign.
1954 Economist 9 Jan. 97 The task force appointed..to examine the civil service.
1979 Sunday Star (Toronto) 11 Feb. a8/2 [The mayor] now seems to have recognized this in appointing a task force of city aldermen to look into the conversion of large houses into bachelorette apartments.
1989 Financial Times (Nexis) 4 Sept. 20 Among the recommendations of the taskforce are that women should be encouraged to enter the workforce by providing better child care.
2021 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 9 Aug. 6 The vaccine taskforce was created by the Government in the spring of 2020, just weeks after the coronavirus pandemic emerged, to drive forward the discovery and production of working vaccinations.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2022).
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n.1927