Read the excerpts from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. So far have I been from any care to I look with pleasure on my book,
grace my pages with modern
however defective, and deliver it to
decorations, that I have studiously the world with the spirit of a man that
endeavoured to collect examples and has endeavoured well.
authorities from the writers before the
restoration.
In both excerpts, the word endeavour means to
O probe, investigate, or examine.
O make an effort or attempt, or to try.
O judge harshly or criticize.
O overlook, ignore, or neglect.