[L.; = effort, endeavor, impulse, f. cōnārī to endeavor.]
1. An effort, endeavor, striving.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., vi. 143. Conatus’s toward the destruction or ruin of the person.
1836. Chalmers, Mor. Philos., Wks. V. 274. A conatus that can find no distinct object to rest upon.
2. transf. A force, impulse, or tendency simulating a human effort; a nisus.
1665. Glanvill, Scepsis Sc., xxiii. The conatus of the circling matter.
1672. Wallis, in Phil. Trans., VII. 5164. This force may be either that of Percussion … Or some Conatus or Endevour of its own.
1674. Grew, Anat. Plants, III. II. i. § 11. The Pith and other Parenchymous Parts of a Plant, upon the reception of Liquor, have always a Conatus to dilate themselves.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Conatus (in a Body of Motion) is that Disposition or Aptitude to go on in a Right-line, if not prevented by other Causes.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xiii. Wks. 1830, IV. 169. What blind conatus of nature should produce it in birds.
1885. Martineau, Types Eth. Th., I. I. ii. 343. The self-conserving conatus.
