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Effort to overcome in contest; struggle; endeavor. [R.] Farindon.

Strength; force; might; violent effort. [Obs., except in certain phrases.] There were in this battle of most might and main. R. of Gl. He 'gan advance, With huge force, and with importable main. Spenser.

To gain, as the result of one's efforts; to get, as profit; to make acquisition of; to have accrue or happen to one; as, to make a large profit; to make an error; to make a loss; to make money. He accuseth Neptune unjustly who makes shipwreck a second time. Bacon.

nnerist, which has been adopted on principle, and which can be sustained only by constant effort, is always offensive. Macaulay.

Pertaining to mediation; used in mediation; as, mediative efforts. Beaconsfield.

check his course. Pope. To put one one's mettle, to cause or incite one to use one's best efforts.

To soil one's self with severe labor; to work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge. Moil not too much under ground. Bacon. Now he must moil and drudge for one he loathes. Dryden.

d discharge. -- To muster up, to gather up; to succeed in obtaining; to obtain with some effort or difficulty. One of those who can muster up sufficient sprightliness to engage in a game of forfeits. Hazlitt.

or more persons or things at the same time; common; joint; as, mutual happiness; a mutual effort. Burke. A vast accession of misery and woe from the mutual weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Bentley.

identical with the û in up, and is called also the natural vowel, as unformed by art and effort. See Guide to Pronunciation, § 17.

rence inefficience; to counteract; as, to neutralize parties in government; to neutralize efforts, opposition, etc. Counter citations that neutralize each other. E. Everett.

A striving; an effort; a conatus. A nisus or energizing towards a presented object. Hickok.

its activities, is directed; that on which the purpose are fixed as the end of action or effort; that which is sought for; end; aim; motive; final cause. Object, beside its proper signification, came to be abusively applied to denote motive, end, final cause.... This innovation was probably borrowed from the French. S…

To get hold of by effort; to gain possession of; to procure; to acquire, in any way. Some pray for riches; riches they obtain. Dryden. By guileful fair words peace may be obtained. Shak. It may be that I may obtain children by her. Gen. xvi. 2.

ppening as opportunity requires or admits; casual; incidental; as, occasional remarks, or efforts. The... occasional writing of the present times. Bagehot.

See Pains, labor, effort. Bill of pains and penalties. See under Bill. -- To die in the pain, to be tortured to death. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Requiring labor or toil; difficult; executed with laborious effort; as a painful service; a painful march.

Labor; toilsome effort; care or trouble taken; -- plural in form, but used with a singular or plural verb, commonly the former. And all my pains is sorted to no proof. Shak. The pains they had taken was very great. Clarendon. The labored earth your pains have sowed and tilled. Dryden.

render ineffective; as, the occurrence paralyzed the community; despondency paralyzed his efforts.

suitable return for expense or trouble; to be remunerative or profitable; to be worth the effort or pains required; as, it will pay to ride; it will pay to wait; politeness always pays. To pay for. (a) To make amends for; to atone for; as, men often pay for their mistakes with loss of property or reputation, sometimes…