exert

t. & i. [Lat. exert us, exsert us, pa. par, of exsero to thrust out: ex =out, and sero =to join; to put together.] A. Transitive : *1. To push out or forward; to put or thrust forth. "The stars exert their heads." Dryden: Ovid; Metamorphoses, i. *2. To bring out or forward. "The several parts lay hidden in the piece, The occasion but exerted that or this." Dryden: Eleonora, 164, 155. 3. To put forth or forward, as strength, power, ability; to strain; to put in action or operation. "When the service of Britain requires your courage and conduct, you may exert them both."-Dryden. 4. To strive; to apply to some work or object. (In this sense the reflexive pronoun is used with the verb.) "The Whig leaders exerted themselves to rally their followers, held meetings at the Rose."-Masaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xxiii. 5. To perform; to put in action. "When the will has exerted an act of command upon any faculty of the soul, or member of the body, it has done all that the whole man, as a moral agent, can do for the actual exercise or employment of such a faculty or member."-South. *B. In trans.: To use exertions; to strive. "How art exerting might with nature vie."