a. [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 (1661), 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, Antonio’s 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. Jesse 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. Ibid. (1735–6), Lett. 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. 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 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. 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 April, 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.
