\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}.