In"dus*try (?), n.; pl.
Industries (#). [L. industria, cf.
industrius diligent; of uncertain origin: cf. F.
industrie.]
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.
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.
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.
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.