give diligence

1 definition found

give diligence - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Diligence \Dil"i*gence\, n. [F. diligence, L. diligentia.]
     1. The quality of being diligent; carefulness; careful
        attention; -- the opposite of negligence.
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     2. Interested and persevering application; devoted and
        painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken;
        assiduity in service.
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              That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified
              in; and the best of me is diligence.  --Shak.
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     3. (Scots Law) Process by which persons, lands, or effects
        are seized for debt; process for enforcing the attendance
        of witnesses or the production of writings.
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     To do one's diligence, give diligence, use diligence,
        to exert one's self; to make interested and earnest
        endeavor.
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              And each of them doth all his diligence
              To do unto the fest['e] reverence.    --Chaucer.
  
     Syn: Attention; industry; assiduity; sedulousness;
          earnestness; constancy; heed; heedfulness; care;
          caution. -- Diligence, Industry. Industry has the
          wider sense of the two, implying an habitual devotion to
          labor for some valuable end, as knowledge, property,
          etc. Diligence denotes earnest application to some
          specific object or pursuit, which more or less directly
          has a strong hold on one's interests or feelings. A man
          may be diligent for a time, or in seeking some favorite
          end, without meriting the title of industrious. Such was
          the case with Fox, while Burke was eminent not only for
          diligence, but industry; he was always at work, and
          always looking out for some new field of mental effort.
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                The sweat of industry would dry and die,
                But for the end it works to.        --Shak.
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                Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which
                an historical writer ascribe to himself. --Gibbon.
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