endeavoring

1. 1
   trying hardverb

   Present participle and gerund of endeavor.

   The committee is endeavoring to reach a fair decision for everyone.

   Scientists are endeavoring to develop a cleaner source of energy.

   Note

   Most of the time this participle reaches forward to a to-infinitive: endeavoring to reach, endeavoring to develop. Older English could also endeavor a thing directly, or simply endeavor in the sense of exerting oneself, and both of those uses are now obsolete. The -or spelling is the American one, for the verb and for the noun of effort alike.

2. 2
   act of strivingnoununcountable

   An act of striving or trying hard; a serious attempt to achieve something.

   Her tireless endeavoring eventually persuaded the board to fund the project.

   The success came only after years of patient endeavoring by the whole crew.

   Similarstriving, effort, exertion, toil, labor

   Note

   The word usually works as a mass noun for effort in progress, but it can take a plural. In Timothy O'Connor and Constantine Sandis's A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, endeavorings stand in a row with efforts and exertions, as things that might be actions themselves. Beside the shorter endeavor, the -ing form keeps the feel of an activity under way, which suits writing that examines effort itself.

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