Dil"i*gence (?), n. [F.
diligence, L. diligentia.] 1. The
quality of being diligent; carefulness; careful attention; -- the
opposite of negligence.
2. Interested and persevering application;
devoted and painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken;
assiduity in service.
That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified
in; and the best of me is diligence.
Shak.
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.
To do one's diligence, give
diligence, use diligence, to exert
one's self; to make interested and earnest endeavor.
And each of them doth all his
diligence
To do unto the festé 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.
The sweat of industry would dry and die,
But for the end it works to.
Shak.
Diligence and accuracy are the only merits
which an historical writer ascribe to himself.
Gibbon.
||Di`li*gence" (?), n. [F.] A
four-wheeled public stagecoach, used in France.
