Adjective

(en adjective)

Obstinately refusing to give up or let go.

She has had a persistent cough for weeks.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=November 10 , author=Jeremy Wilson , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.}}

Insistently repetitive.

There was a persistent knocking on the door.

Indefinitely continuous.

There have been persistent rumours for years.

(botany) Lasting past maturity without falling off.

Pine cones have persistent scales.

*

The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed into a water-sac, is normally very narrowly attached to the stem and to the dorsal lobe; indeed some Frullania'' taxa reproduce vegetatively by dropping the dorsal lobes, but not the lobules, and ''Neohattoria has caducous lobules but persistent lobes.

(computing) About some data or data structures: existing after the execution of the program. Remaining in existence past the lifetime of the program that creates it.

Once written to a disk file the data becomes persistent and it will still be there tomorrow when we run the next program.

This way transient value becomes persistent .

(mathematics) Describing a fractal process that has a positive Brown function

(mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) non-transient.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.

* 1791 , , volume 1, page 238:

Johnson was truly zealous for the success of "The Adventurer;" and very soon after his engaging in it, he wrote the following letter:

* 1896 , , A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (2004 edition), page 122:

Doubtless many will exclaim against the Roman Catholic Church for this; but the simple truth is that Protestantism was no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine.

* 1940 , Foster Rhea Dulles, America Learns to Play: A history of popular recreation, 1607-1940 , page 61:

and there were few more zealous dancers at the fashionable balls in the Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg.

* 2011 April 4, " Newt Gingrich," Time (retrieved 9 Sept 2013):

Newt Gingrich . . . left Congress in 1998, following GOP midterm-election losses that many blamed on his zealous pursuit of Bill Clinton's impeachment.