DiligenceDil"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.
