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Excessive care or diligence. [Obs.]

an, woman, or child. Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection. Locke.

The state of being perspicacious; acuteness of sight or of intelligence; acute discernment. Sir T. Browne.

Resolute; persevering; constant; steady. Diligence is a steady, constant, and pertinacious study. South.

of derivatives of phenol and carbinol which have the properties of both combined; thus, saligenin is a phenol alcohol. -- Phenol aldehyde (Chem.), any one of a series of compounds having both phenol and aldehyde properties. -- Phenol phthalein. See under Phthalein.

ty; on the side of morals and feeling, coarseness; on the side of mind and spirit, unintelligence, -- this is Philistinism. M. Arnold.

Progressing in a slow, toilsome manner; characterized by laborious diligence; as, a plodding peddler; a plodding student; a man of plodding habits. --Plod"ding*ly, adv.

To employ diligently; to use steadily. Go ply thy needle; meddle not. Shak.

A breed of dogs having curly hair, and often showing remarkable intelligence in the performance of tricks.

t day . . . I began to be very pragmatical. Evelyn. We can not always be contemplative, diligent, or pragmatical, abroad; but have need of some delightful intermissions. Milton. Low, pragmatical, earthly views of the gospel. Hare.

nd privilege of life, to eat and sleep without any regard to glory. Burke. The law that obliges parishes to support the poor offers a premium for the encouragement of idleness. Franklin.

original; of earliest origin; as, primordial condition. "The primordial facts of our intelligent nature." Sir W. Hamilton.

of an insolvent. Wharton. Burrill. -- Privileged witnesses (Law) witnesses who are not obliged to testify as to certain things, as lawyers in relation to their dealings with their clients, and officers of state as to state secrets; also, by statute, clergymen and physicans are placed in the same category, so far as co…

n in fact; questionable; uncertain; unsettled; doubtful. -- Prob`lem*at"ic*al*ly, adv. Diligent inquiries into remote and problematical guilt leave a gate wide open to . . . informers. Swift.

hat which is produced, yielded, or made, whether naturally, or by the application of intelligence and labor; as, the productions of the earth; the productions of handicraft; the productions of intellect or genius.

hed did not profit them. Heb. iv. 2. It is a great means of profiting yourself, to copy diligently excellent pieces and beautiful designs. Dryden.

To oblige; to confer a favor on. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige. These wretches put us upon all mischief. Swift. Put me not use the carnal weapon in my own defense. Sir W. Scott. Thank him who puts me, loath, to this revenge. Milton.

ip arriving in port, and suspected of being infected a malignant contagious disease, is obliged to forbear all intercourse with the shore; hence, such restraint or inhibition of intercourse; also, the place where infected or prohibited vessels are stationed.

To utter glibly and incoherently; to mouth without intelligence. [Obs. or Scot.] Foxe.