Definition of "endeavour"

And these three: 1. the law over them that have sovereign power; 2. their duty; 3. their profit: are one and the same thing contained in this sentence, Salus populi suprema lex; by which must be understood, not the mere preservation of their lives, but generally their benefit and good. So that this is the general law for sovereigns: that they procure, to the uttermost of their endeavour, the good of the people.

1640, Thomas Hobbes, chapter 28, in The Elements of Law, part II

The like has been the endeavour of critics, logicians, and even politicians […] .

1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 9

As we shall find it necessary, in our endeavours to bring electrical phenomena within the province of dynamics, to have our dynamical ideas in a state fit for direct application to physical questions we shall devote this chapter to an exposition of these dynamical ideas from a physical point of view.

1873, J C Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, volume 2, page 184

Universal Directory of Railway Officials and Railway Year Book, 1946-47. […] Although the preparation of the fifty-second edition of this well-known work proved a far from easy task, owing to the continuance of unsettled conditions in many parts of the world, the response to the endeavours of the publishers to obtain accurate and complete information has exceeded anything that would have been possible twelve months earlier.

1947 January and February, “Railway Literature”, in Railway Magazine, page 64

And such were Prais'd who but endeavour'd well.

1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis […], published 1711

The other species of philosophers consider man in the light of a reasonable rather than an active being, and endeavour to form his understanding more than cultivate his manners.

1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 2

It is our duty […] to endeavour the recovery of these most beneficial subjects.

November 20, 1777, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Debate in the Lords on the Address of Thanks

If you be affronted, it is better, in a foreign country, to pass it by in silence, and with a jest, though with some dishonour, than to endeavour revenge; for, in the first case, your credit's ne'er the worse when you return into England, or come into other company that have not heard of the quarrel.

1669 May 18, Sir Isaac Newton, Letter (to Francis Aston)