DictionaryAI

endeavor

en-DEV-ur/ɛnˈdɛv.ɚ/UKin-DEV-uh/ɪnˈdɛv.ə/

Pluralendeavors

Verbendeavors, endeavoring, endeavored

UK spellingendeavour

5 meanings of endeavor

Practice

  1. 1
    serious attemptnouncountable or uncountable
    A sincere attempt or determined effort toward a specific goal; sustained, purposeful activity.

    The expedition was a bold endeavor that took years of planning.

    Scientific endeavor depends on patience and careful observation.

    Similarundertaking, venture, enterprise, pursuit, activity

    Note

    Behind the word stands an old idea of obligation: Middle English put oneself in dever, "in duty," half-translating French se mettre en devoir. An endeavor was first something one made one's duty, which is why it still sounds earnest enough for Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Prayer on D-Day" (1944). It can be countable (a bold endeavor) or can name a whole field of activity (scientific endeavor). Undertaking and pursuit are its plainer neighbors.

  2. 2
    try to doverbintransitive
    To make a strenuous attempt to do something, applying real effort toward accomplishing it.

    The team endeavors to meet each deadline despite limited resources.

    Scientists endeavor to explain phenomena that puzzle them.

    Similarstrive, try, attempt, seek, aim

    Note

    The living verb is almost always followed by to and another verb: endeavor to meet a deadline, endeavor to explain. That infinitive is what separates it from the obsolete transitive use, in which a noun followed the verb directly. When the sentence names an action rather than a thing, this is the construction to reach for.

  3. 3
    work steadilyverbintransitive
    To work in a deliberate, purposeful way, with one's effort directed toward a goal.

    Researchers in small labs often endeavor for years in obscurity before the public hears of their progress.

    He endeavors with steady focus, treating each task as important.

    Similartoil, labor, work, strive

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    push yourselfverbobsolete
    To exert oneself; to put forth strenuous physical or mental effort.

    The crew endeavored against wind and tide for many hours.

    Pilgrims would endeavor without rest until they reached the shrine.

    Note

    An obsolete use with nothing after the verb. One simply endeavored, the way one might labor, with no goal named. Modern readers expect a goal, so a sentence like "they endeavored all night" now feels unfinished. In current writing, supply the to-infinitive of the "try strenuously" sense (they endeavored to reach shore) rather than leaving the verb on its own.

  2. 5
    take onverbobsoletetransitive
    To attempt something; to make an effort to accomplish a particular thing taken as its object.

    He endeavored the climb that had defeated many before him.

    The guild would endeavor great works that lesser men avoided.

    Note

    Here the goal stands as a plain noun object: to endeavor the climb, to endeavor great works. Modern usage has dropped this pattern, and a reader today is likely to take it for a slip. When the object is a thing rather than an action, attempt or undertake carries the meaning safely. Keep endeavor for sentences where a verb follows to.

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Origin

The verb comes from Middle English endeveren ("to make an effort"), and the noun from endevour, based on the verb. Endeveren goes back to the phrase (putten) in dever, "(to put oneself) in duty," from in plus dever ("duty"), partly translating the Middle French se mettre en devoir ("to make it one's duty"), from Old French devoir, deveir ("duty").