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Eagerly pressing or urgent; zealous; ardent; earnest; bold; valiant; intrepid; as, a strenuous advocate for national rights; a strenuous reformer; a strenuous defender of his country. And spirit-stirring wine, that strenuous makes. Chapman. Strenuous, continuous labor is pain. I. Taylor. -- Stren"u*ous*ly, adv. -- Str…

er, whether physical or mental, in performing an act or aiming at an object; more or less strenuous endeavor; struggle directed to the accomplishment of an object; as, an effort to scale a wall. We prize the stronger effort of his power. Pope.

ry of these beneficial subjects. Ld. Chatham. To endeavor one's self, to exert one's self strenuously to the fulfillment of a duty. [Obs.] "A just man that endeavoreth himself to leave all wickedness." Latimer.

and tightening it before any exertion; hence, adjectively, eagerly or constantly active; strenuous; striving. "A severer, more girt-up way of living." J. C. Shairp.

To make less severe or rogorous; to abate the stringency of; to remit in respect to strenuousness, esrnestness, or effort; as, to relax discipline; to relax one's attention or endeavors. The stature of mortmain was at several times relaxed by the legilature. Swift.

anding in competition for superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions. The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen. Macaulay.

Strenuousness; activity. [Obs.] Chapman.

oposition under another. De Quincey. A principle under which one might subsume men's most strenuous efforts after righteousness. W. Pater.