Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To put to use or effect; put forth.
- transitive verb To bring to bear; exercise.
- transitive verb To put (oneself) to strenuous effort.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To put forth; thrust out; push out; emit.
- To put forth, as strength, force, or ability; put in action; bring into active operation: as, to
exert the strength of the body; to exert powers or faculties. - To put forth as the result of effort; do or perform.
- To put forth effort or energy.
- See
exserted .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To thrust forth; to emit; to push out.
- transitive verb To put force, ability, or anything of the nature of an active faculty; to put in vigorous action; to bring into active operation
- transitive verb To put forth, as the result or exercise of effort; to bring to bear; to do or perform.
- transitive verb to use efforts or endeavors; to strive; to make an attempt.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb to put in
vigorous action - verb to make
use of, toapply , especially of something non-material
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb put to use
- verb make a great effort at a mental or physical task
- verb have and exercise
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The only control I will try to exert is to keep doing them.
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That exert from the housekeeping magazine is hilarious ... too funny.
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And clearly, the military force a country can exert is only one component of its power.
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That exert from the housekeeping magazine is hilarious ... too funny.
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Much of the fascination that the book continues to exert is owing to its context, and none of the editions I possess, including Paul Foote's 1966 translation and now this very deft version by Hugh Aplin, has failed to include quite a deal of background material without which Mikhail Lermontov's brief, intricate masterpiece is difficult to appreciate.
A Doomed Young Man 2005
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Much of the fascination that the book continues to exert is owing to its context, and none of the editions I possess, including Paul Foote's 1966 translation and now this very deft version by Hugh Aplin, has failed to include quite a deal of background material without which Mikhail Lermontov's brief, intricate masterpiece is difficult to appreciate.
A Doomed Young Man 2005
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But I suggest that our weight in world affairs and the influence we can exert is greater than our numbers would indicate.
Canada in 1953 1953
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Otherwise, we may need to take Timberlake up on his word and exert a little extra A-list peer pressure!
FOXNews.com Hollie McKay 2011
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a man was able to exert, that is, how many foot-pounds of work a man could do in a day.
The Principles of Scientific Management Frederick Winslow Taylor 1885
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Speakers of the major non-English languages are in positions to exert influence on the evolution of Global English purely on the basis of their numbers.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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