endeavour
Pronunciation
  • (GA) IPA: /ɪnˈdɛv.ɚ/
  • (RP) IPA: /ɪnˈdɛv.ə/
Noun

endeavour (plural endeavours)

  1. Britain standard spelling of endeavor#English|endeavor.
    • 1748, David Hume, in 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 […] .
    • 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.
Verb

endeavour (endeavours, present participle endeavouring; past and past participle endeavoured)

  1. Britain standard spelling of endeavor#English|endeavor.
    • 1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: Printed for W. Lewis […], published 1711, OCLC 15810849 ↗:
      And such were Prais'd who but endeavour'd well.
    • 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.
    • It is our duty to endeavour the recovery of these beneficial subjects.
    • 1669 May 18, Sir Isaac Newton, Letter (to Francis Aston):
      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.



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