n. [ F. diligence, L. diligentia. ] 1. The quality of being diligent; carefulness; careful attention; -- the opposite of negligence. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Interested and persevering application; devoted and painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken; assiduity in service. [ 1913 Webster ]

That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

To do one's diligence,
give diligence,
use diligence, to exert one's self; to make interested and earnest endeavor. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The sweat of industry would dry and die,
But for the end it works to. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which an historical writer ascribe to himself. Gibbon. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. ] A four-wheeled public stagecoach, used in France. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. indiligentia: cf. F. indiligence. ] Lack of diligence. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]