Industries

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Industry \In"dus*try\, n.; pl. {Industries}. [L. industria, cf.
     industrius diligent; of uncertain origin: cf. F. industrie.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Habitual diligence in any employment or pursuit, either
        bodily or mental; steady attention to business; assiduity;
        -- opposed to {sloth} and {idleness}; as, industry pays


        debts, while idleness or despair will increase them.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We are more industrious than our forefathers,
              because in the present times the funds destined for
              the maintenance of industry are much greater in
              proportion to those which are likely to be employed
              in the maintenance of idleness, than they were two
              or three centuries ago.               --A. Smith.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Any department or branch of art, occupation, or business;
        especially, one which employs much labor and capital and
        is a distinct branch of trade; as, the sugar industry; the
        iron industry; the cotton industry.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Polit. Econ.) Human exertion of any kind employed for the
        creation of value, and regarded by some as a species of
        capital or wealth; labor.
  
     Syn: Diligence; assiduity; perseverance; activity;
          laboriousness; attention. See {Diligence}.
          [1913 Webster]