strenuous, a.
(ˈstrɛnjuːəs)
[f. L. strēnu-us brisk, active, vigorous (related to Gr. στρηνής strong, hard, rough, στρῆνος haughtiness, arrogance) + -ous. Cf. It. strenuo, Sp. estrénuo.
App. first used by Marston; one of the words ridiculed, as pedantic neologisms, by Ben Jonson in his attack on Marston in Poetaster (1601), where (v. iii. 302) Marston's line is almost literally quoted.]
1. Of persons or their dispositions: Vigorous in action, energetic; ‘brave, bold, active, valiant’ (J.). Now usually with stronger notion: Unremittingly and ardently laborious.
| 1599 Marston Ant. Rev. v. i. (1602) I 2, The fist of strenuous vengeance is clutcht. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xvii. 495 He..tooke one Podes, that was heire, to old Eetion, A rich man, and a strenuous [Gr. ἀγαθός]. 1631 Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 254 A strenuous and an expert Souldier. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vii. 326 Our Ship..did carry..foure score strong and strenuous Saylers. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Strenuous, valiant, stout, hardy, active. 1670 Milton Hist. Brit. iv. 181 Offa the Mercian, a strenuous and suttle King. 1718 Pope Iliad iii. 91 Like Steel, uplifted by some strenuous Swain. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 162 His attention had been confined to those studies which form strenuous and sagacious men of business. 1877 Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. xii. 301 Faith was more strenuous and robust in those days. 1899 J. L. Williams Stolen Story, etc. 128 The city editor, who had his fingers on the pulse of the strenuous metropolis. |
b. Zealous, earnest, ‘strong’ as a partisan or opponent. Obs. exc. as contextual use of sense 1.
| 1713 Swift in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 359 Lord Hintchingbrook..is grown a strenuous Tory. 1735–6 ― Let. to Pope 7 Feb, I hear he resolves to be strenuous for taking off the Test. 1759 Dilworth Pope 67 So strenuous a member of the Romish Church was Mr. Pope. 1774 Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 92 A strenuous supporter of Mary Stuart. 1775 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 26, I have been a strenuous advocate for the superiority of this country. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 127 Mons. l'Abbé de ― was particularly strenuous for what is called the regeneration of the kingdom. 1822 Hazlitt Men & Manners Ser. ii. iii. (1869) 75 He was as open to impressions as he was strenuous in maintaining them. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xvi. 312 The idea attached to Professor Forbes's words by some of his most strenuous supporters. 1892 Lady F. Verney Verney Mem. I. 41 Sir Ralph was as strenuous as ever for Edward IV in the city. |
2. † a. Of inanimate things: Strong, powerful in operation; also, physically robust. Obs.
| 1632 Quarles Div. Fancies ii. xxv. 66 The Sun shines alwaies strenuous and faire, But, ah, our sins, our Clouds benight the ayre. 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Pet. iii. 3. II. 1140 Heaven and earth are of a strenuous composition, compact together with more powerfull sinewes and ligaments. |
b. Of voice, etc.: Powerful, loud. arch.
| 1680 H. More Apocal. Apoc. 181 He..pronounceth the sentence against the great Whore with a strong and strenuous voice. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. viii. 372 They expressed their approbation, according to naval custom, by three strenuous cheers. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiv. (1818) II. 379 The wasp and hornet also are strenuous hummers. 1850 Grote Greece ii. lx. (1862) V. 292 He was seen..marshalling the troops,..and addressing them with a voice louder, more strenuous, and more commanding than was his wont. 1876 Morris Sigurd iii. 180 Forth go their hearts before them to the blast of the strenuous horn. |
3. Of action or effort: Vigorous, energetic; now with stronger sense, persistently and ardently laborious. Of conditions, periods, etc.: Characterized by strenuous exertion.
strenuous idleness (= L. strenua inertia, Hor. Ep. i. xi. 28): busy activity to no useful purpose.
| 1671 Milton Samson 268 But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,..Then to love Bondage more then Liberty; Bondage with ease then strenuous liberty. 1681 J. Flavel Meth. Grace xxviii. 481 Languishing consumptive persons are very unfit to be employed in difficult and strenuous labours. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 14 Aug. 1654, Belvoir Castle..is famous for its strenuous resistance in the late civil warr. 1728 Morgan Algiers II. iv. 265 One [galley] by mere Dint of strenuous Rowing..escaped. 1742 Young Nt. Th. i. 149 A soul immortal, spending all her fires, Wasting her strength in strenuous idleness. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 156 He..seized upon him with a strenuous embrace. 1785 Cowper Task i. 388 Himself derives..From strenuous toil his hours of sweetest ease. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxxiii, He..was conveyed to a place of confinement, whither the most strenuous inquiries of his friends had been unable to trace him. 1810 Southey Kehama vi. iii, Soaring with strenuous flight above, He bears her to the blessed Grove. 1829 Wordsw. ‘This Lawn, a carpet all alive’ 6 Worldlings revelling in the fields Of strenuous idleness. 1846 Grote Greece I. i. vi. 153 He is one of the few Grecian princes who..is found in a strenuous and honoured old age in the midst of his children and subjects. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 10 But for their strenuous opposition to the Exclusion Bill he would have been a banished man. 1851 Carlyle Sterling iii. iii. (1872) 186 On this Tragedy of Strafford..he expended many strenuous months. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) xiii. 321 The hours of labour, divided into minutes..of strenuous muscular exertion. 1899 Roosevelt Sp. 10 Apr. in Strenuous Life (1902) 1, I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife. |