diligence

French diligence

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪlɪdʒəns/
• Hyphenation: di‧li‧gence
• The stage-coach sense may be pronounced as in French.

diligence (countable and uncountable, plural diligences)

1. Steady application; industry; careful work involving long-term effort.
2. The qualities of a hard worker, including conscientiousness, determination, and perseverance.
3. Carefulness.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   due diligence

4. (historical, 19th century) A public stage-coach.
   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Volume 1, Chapter V:

     Continuing thus, I came at length opposite to the inn at which the various diligences and carriages usually stopped.

   • 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes:

     Being in a civilised country of stage-coaches, I determined to sell my lady friend and be off by the diligence that afternoon.

5. (law, Scotland) The process by which persons, lands, or effects are seized for debt; process for enforcing the attendance of witnesses or the production of writings.

• worksomeness (rare)

• due diligence

• ceilinged

diligence

From Latin diligentia.

• IPA^(key): /di.li.ʒɑ̃s/

diligence f (countable and uncountable, plural diligences)

1. (uncountable) diligence, conscientiousness
2. (uncountable) haste
3. (countable) stage-coach, diligence

• “diligence” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).