Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Diligence

Diligence , noun

[French diligence, Latin diligentia.]

1.
The quality of being diligent; carefulness; careful attention; -- the opposite of negligence.
2.
Interested and persevering application; devoted and painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken; assiduity in service.
That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. — Shakespeare
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.
And each of them doth all his diligence To do unto the festé reverence. — Chaucer
The sweat of industry would dry and die, But for the end it works to. — Shakespeare
Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which an historical writer ascribe to himself. — Gibbon
Collocations (1)
To do one's diligence or give diligence or use diligence , to exert one's self; to make interested and earnest endeavor.

Diligence , noun

[French]

A four-wheeled public stagecoach, used in France.