c1380 G. Chaucer Second Nun's Tale 117 Right so was faire Cecilie..Ful swift and bisy euere in good werkynge And round and hool in good perseuerynge [v.r. perseueryng].

1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1888) I. 70 Thair quick receiueng of the christne religione, and..sa constantlie in it perseueiring.

1605 in C. P. Stewart Hist. Mem. Stewarts of Fothergill (1870) 114 Lyk as thay thairintill contenowis in perceiwering [printed imperceiwering] in thair malice aganis the said complener.

1677 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. IV iv. 287 What is Duration, but the persevering of a thing in its existence?

1779 B. Franklin Morals of Chess in Papers (1992) XXIX. 755 We learn by chess the habit of..persevering in the search of resources.

1791 M. De Fleury Divine Poems & Ess. 230 How is it that disciples..continue in the word of Christ, and by so persevering, give evidence of that they are?

1821 C. Lloyd Titus & Gisippus 192 They dar'd not longer dwell In persevering in the past-gone scene.

1871 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch (1872) I. v. 77 Celia..had her reasons for persevering, though she was beginning to be a little afraid.

1907 Catholic Encycl. II. 439/2 The members of the [Benedictine] community are bound together by a family tie, and each takes upon himself the obligation of persevering in his monastery until death.

1988 M. Sendak Coldecott & Co. (1989) ii. 197 What is important, she says, is to continue. In persevering, you will discover triumphs.

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Hunterian) f. 74 (MED) Þe bledinge of him is good..for olde perseueringe akkeþ off þe heued.

1622 H. Gamon (title) Gods iust desertion of the vniust: and his perseuering grace to the righteous.

1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine iv. v. 91 Such was his persevering beauty..that it lasted unto his old-age.

1759 A. Smith Theory Moral Sentiments i. §iii. v. 87 The most obstinate and persevering modesty.

1798 I. Wilson Diary in Mem. (1825) 131 All glory be to God for persevering grace.

1816 R. Southey Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo i. x The persevering Spaniard girt it round.

1879 Harper's Mag. Dec. 52/1 Persevering and relentless rain.

1956 I. Belknap Human Probl. of State Mental Hosp. x. 177 The persevering, nagging delusional group—who were termed ‘worry warts’, ‘nuisances’, ‘bird dogs’, in the attendants' slang.

1992 Boston Globe 17 July 19/2 Perot would prefer to have us believe that he is not eaten up with the kind of clawing, persevering ambition it takes to win.