molior

From mōlēs (“a pile, heap”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key):
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key):

mōlior (present infinitive mōlīrī or mōlīrier, perfect active mōlītus sum); fourth conjugation, deponent

1. to strive, endeavor, work at
2. to put in motion, shake, move
3. to rouse, bestir
4. to undertake, start, begin, commence
5. to erect, construct
6. (figuratively) to attempt, stir up
   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Persa 5.2.8:

     Quia eī fidem nōn habuī argentī, eō mihi eās māchinās mōlītu'st.

     Because I had no trust in him about the silver, he laid me these machinations.

   • 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations 1.8:

     Nihil agis, nihil mōlīris, nihil cōgitās quod nōn ego nōn modo audiam sed etiam videam plānēque sentiam.

     You do nothing, you plan nothing, you think of nothing which I not only do not hear, but which I do not see and know every particular of.

   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 1.268–272:

     Quippe etiam fēstīs quaedam exercēre diēbus
     fās et iūra sinunt: rīvōs dēdūcere nūlla
     rēligiō vetuit, segetī praetendere saepem,
     īnsidiās avibus mōlīrī, incendere veprēs,
     bālantumque gregem fluviō mersāre salūbrī.

     Of course, even on holidays to do some tasks
     divine order and laws allow: to guide down the rills no
     religion has forbidden, to lay a hedge in front of a crop,
     to set the birds traps, to burn bushes,
     to bathe the bleating herd in the clean river.

¹The present passive infinitive in -ier is a rare poetic form which is attested.

• (strive): lūctor, ēlabōrō, certō, cōnītor, cōnor, temptō, affectō, tendō, quaerō, studeō, contendō, appetō, adnītor, labōrō, pugnō, ēnītor, perīclitor, nītor, spectō
• (construct): aedificō, exaedificō, inaedificō, struō, cōnstruō, condō, compōnō, fundō, cōnstituō, exstruō, statuō
• (start): incohō, exōrdior, occipiō, incipiō, coepiō, ōrdior, initiō, ineō, ingredior, aggredior, sūmō, committō, exorior
• (rouse): cieō, irrītō, stimulō, impellō, concitō, instigō, instinguō, exciō, ădhortor, inflammō, flammō, sollicitō, incendō, ērigō

• (antonym(s) of “start”): subsistō, dēsistō, cessō
• (antonym(s) of “rouse”): domō, lēniō, sōpiō, sēdō, plācō, restinguō, dēlēniō, coerceō, mītigō, commītigō, ēlevō, levō, allevō, alleviō

• mōlēs
• molestē
• molestia
• molestus

• “molior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• molior in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2025), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• “molior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• molior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to compass, devise a man's overthrow, ruin: perniciem (exitium) alicui afferre, moliri, parare
    
  • to be busy with ambitious projects: magna moliri
    
  • to meditate crime: scelera moliri (Att. 7. 11)
    
  • to shake credit: fidem moliri (Liv. 6. 11. 8)
    
  • to plot a revolution: novas res moliri (Verr. 2. 125)
    
  • to meditate war: bellum moliri