diligence

Vigilant activity; attentiveness; or care, of which there are infinite shades, from the slightest momentary thought to the most vigilant anxiety. Attentive and persistent in doing a thing; steadily applied; active; sedulous; laborious; unremitting; untiring. The attention and care required of a person in a given situation; the opposite of Negligence.

There may be a high degree of diligence, a common degree of diligence, and a slight degree of diligence, with their corresponding degrees of negligence. Common or ordinary diligence is that degree of diligence which persons generally exercise in respect to their own concerns; high or great diligence is, of course, extraordinary diligence, or that which very prudent persons take of their own concerns; and low or slight diligence is that which persons of less than common prudence, or indeed of any prudence at all, take of their own concerns.

Special diligence is the skill that a good businessperson exercises in his or her specialty. It is more highly regarded than ordinary diligence or the diligence of a nonspecialist in a given set of circumstances.

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diligence n. reasonable care or attention to a matter, which is good enough to avoid a claim of negligence, or is a fair attempt (as in due diligence in a process server's attempt to locate someone).

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diligence (Care), noun absorption of mind, active application, active attention, active study, active thought, advertence, advertency, alertness, application, attention, attention to detail, carefulness, caution, check-up, circumspection, close application, close attention, close study, close thought, concern, consideration, deep application, deep attention, deep study, deep thought, deliberate application, deliberate attention, delibbrate study, deliberate thought, diligent application, diliient attention, diligent study, diligent thought, diligentia, earnestness, exactitude, exactness, exclusive application, exclusive attention, exclusive study, exclusive thought, foresight, guard, heed, heedfulness, industria, inquisitive attention, inspection, intense application, innense study, intense thought, intentness, meticulousness, mindfulness, minute application, minute attention, minute study, minute thought, minuteness, observation, painstaking, particularity, pedantry, preparedness, profound application, profound attention, profound study, profound thought, prudence, rapt attention, readiness, review, scrutiny, seriousness, single-mindedness, studiousness, study, thoroughgoingness, thoroughness, undivided attention, utmost care, vigilance, wakefulness, wariness, watchfulness, whole attention, whole mind
Associated concepts: due diligence, lack of diligence, ordiiary diligence, reasonable diligence, utmost diligence

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diligence (Perseverance), noun application, ardor, assiduity, assiduousness, constancy, continuance, devotedness, devotion, doggedness, earnestness, firmness of purpose, fixity of purpose, habitual deeotion, indefatigability, industriousness, insistence, intrepidity, meticulosity, patience, persistence, persistency, persistent exertion, pertinacity, relentlessness, resolution, restlessness, sedulity, singleness of purpose, staying power, steadiness, steady application, strength of will, stubbornness, tenaciousness, tenacity, tirelessness, undivided attention, vigilence, vigor, zeal, zealousness
Associated concepts: diligence in prosecution

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See also: activity, caution, dispatch, effort, industry, tenacity, work

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DILIGENCE, contracts. The doing things in proper time.
     2. It may be divided into three degrees, namely: ordinary diligence, extraordinary diligence, and slight diligence. It is the reverse of negligence. (q.v.) Under that article is shown what degree of negligence, or want of diligence, will make a party to a contract responsible to the other. Vide Story, Bailm. Index h.t.; Ayl. Pand. 113 1 Miles, Rep. 40.

DILIGENCE. In Scotland, there are certain forms of law, whereby a creditor endeavors to make good his payment, either by affecting the person of his debtor, or by securing the subjects belonging to him from alienation, or by carrying the property of these subjects to himself. They are either real or personal.
     2. Real diligence is that which is proper to heritable or real rights,. and of this kind there are two sorts: 1. Inhibitions. 2. Adjudication, which the law has substituted in the place of apprising.
     3. Personal diligence is that by which the person of the debtor may be secured, or his personal estate affected. Ersk. Pr. L. Scotl. B. 2, t. 11, s. 1.