资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Industry \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}.