DILIGENCES
Noun
diligences
plural of diligence
Source: Wiktionary
DILIGENCE
Dil"i*gence, n. Etym: [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)
Definition: 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. Etym: [F.]
Definition: A four-wheeled public stagecoach, used in France.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition