The AI-powered English dictionary
third-person singular simple present exerts, present participle exerting, simple past and past participle exerted
To put in vigorous action. examples
To make use of, to apply, especially of something non-material. quotations examples
Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess
Di Matteo clearly saw Drogba's power as a potential threat to a Barcelona defence stripped of Gerard Pique - but he barely caught sight of goal in a first 45 minutes in which the Catalans exerted their technical superiority.
2012 April 18, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona”, in BBC Sport
How can the unions - or more specifically the RMT - possibly think this is a good time to exert a bit of industrial muscle and indulge in strikes both on the national railway and the London Underground?
2022 January 12, Christian Wolmar, “A new year... but the same old mistakes are being made”, in RAIL, number 948, pages 40–41