endeavour

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English [edit]

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Merge-arrow.gif It has been requested that this entry be merged with endeavor(+).

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Middle English endeveren, corresponding to en- +‎ devoir; compare Middle French se mettre en devoir de faire (to make it one's duty to do, to endeavour to do).

Pronunciation [edit]

  • (UK) IPA: /ɪnˈdɛ.və/
  • (US) IPA: /ɛnˈdɛvəɹ/
  • (file)

Verb [edit]

endeavour (third-person singular simple present endeavours, present participle endeavouring, simple past and past participle endeavoured)

  1. (obsolete, reflexive) To exert oneself. [15th-17th c.]
  2. (intransitive) To attempt through application of effort (to do something); to try strenuously. [from 16th c.]
    • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 2:
      The other species of philosophers consider man in the light of a reasonable rather than an active being, and endeavour to form his understanding more than cultivate his manners.
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To attempt (something). [16th-17th c.]
    • 1669, Sir Isaac Newton, Letter (to Francis Aston), 18 May 1669:
      If you be affronted, it is better, in a foreign country, to pass it by in silence, and with a jest, though with some dishonour, than to endeavour revenge; for, in the first case, your credit's ne'er the worse when you return into England, or come into other company that have not heard of the quarrel.

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

Noun [edit]

endeavour (plural endeavours)

  1. A sincere attempt; a determined or assiduous effort towards a specific goal.
    • 1640, Thomas Hobbes, The Elements of Law, Part II, Chapter 28,
      And these three: 1. the law over them that have sovereign power; 2. their duty; 3. their profit: are one and the same thing contained in this sentence, Salus populi suprema lex; by which must be understood, not the mere preservation of their lives, but generally their benefit and good. So that this is the general law for sovereigns: that they procure, to the uttermost of their endeavour, the good of the people.
    • 1873, J C Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Volume 2, page 184:
      As we shall find it necessary, in our endeavours to bring electrical phenomena within the province of dynamics, to have our dynamical ideas in a state fit for direct application to physical questions we shall devote this chapter to an exposition of these dynamical ideas from a physical point of view.
  2. Enterprise; assiduous or persistent activity.
    • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, London: Oxford University Press, 1973, § 9:
      The like has been the endeavour of critics, logicians, and even politicians [] .

Translations [edit]

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