Verb (used without object) : to persist in working for world peace; to persist in unpopular political activities. ,The legend of King Arthur has persisted for nearly fifteen centuries.    From Dictionary.com. 

She is the idea of primordial unity, existing in and persisting from the beginning.    From Wordnik.com.  [The problem of the Childlike Empress at SF Novelists] Reference

Nothing to do with why I started, but a reason for persisting, is that blogging has made me much more engaged with the whole internet.    From Wordnik.com.  [Brian Ruckley - News & Views] Reference

This, however, he would by no means allow; and as he called her persisting in the right, obstinacy, he began to hate her with no small inveteracy.    From Wordnik.com.  [History of Tom Jones, a Foundling] Reference

They have still not turned up in Luanda because of what UNITA described as persisting.    From Wordnik.com.  [ANC Daily News Briefing] Reference

"That persisting stigma can make people uncomfortable.".    From Wordnik.com.  [It’s Not Just White Girls] Reference

Yet in my case this long persisting gloom was suddenly lifted.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose His Life and Speeches] Reference

"I don't know, Blatch," maintained the fleshy one, timid yet persisting.    From Wordnik.com.  [Judith of the Cumberlands] Reference

A taste persisting in the mouth after the substance causing it is no longer present.    From Wordnik.com.  [Open Letters to Closed Caskets] Reference

However, year-on-year, food price inflation accelerated to 11.4%, highlighting persisting price pressures.    From Wordnik.com.  [India Industrial Output Up 7.1%] Reference

Swire Pacific said its marine-services division will face challenges because of persisting surplus capacity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Swire's First-Half Profit Surges] Reference

Recovery is hastened by avoiding cold and damp, and persisting with a liquid diet for a considerable period.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Home Medical Library, Volume II (of VI)] Reference

Now it looks increasingly likely that water pooled on the surface, persisting for centuries, millenniums or more.    From Wordnik.com.  [Out Where We Belong] Reference

And during the speech the collar or lappel annoyed both speaker and audience by persisting in rising up unbidden.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Life of Abraham Lincoln] Reference

"Think of what all your friends will say," says he, desperately, knowing he is losing ground, but still persisting.    From Wordnik.com.  [Molly Bawn] Reference

These same people once hung women for witchcraft, and slaughtered women for persisting in certain religious beliefs.    From Wordnik.com.  [As A Chinaman Saw Us Passages from his Letters to a Friend at Home] Reference

Scoblant was first brought to his trial; when, persisting in the profession of his faith, he received sentence of death.    From Wordnik.com.  [Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs] Reference

But she followed after him, holding out one hand for him to take, and persisting in the effort when he refused to see it.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Last Woman] Reference

Others are woody stemmed plants, persisting from year to year, and often becoming great trees that live for hundreds of years.    From Wordnik.com.  [Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses] Reference

Khaness, prayed Khasi-Mollah not to enter the Avarian territory; but he persisting, she called together her warriors to resist him.    From Wordnik.com.  [Life of Schamyl And Narrative of the Circassian War of Independence Against Russia] Reference

He was not sure where to go to find Isabella, but another need was also persisting in his mind; he was parched and needed some water.    From Wordnik.com.  [Begonia {part six}] Reference

Supposing it to be the officer of the battery persisting in his mistake, I replied as before, and then turned over and went to sleep.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Citizen-Soldier or, Memoirs of a Volunteer] Reference

His second and third were each fed by his strike partner, suggesting there is logic in persisting with the Rooney-Defoe partnership after all.    From Wordnik.com.  [England player ratings v Bulgaria] Reference

One (flimsy) reason for persisting in Afghanistan is that it would be good if the country under a Democratic administration were to win a war.    From Wordnik.com.  [Is it 1966 in Washington?] Reference

In this range it is most frequent in calcareous soils, reaching its best development in rich woodland, but persisting on poorer upland soils also.    From Wordnik.com.  [Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting Pleasant Valley, New York, August 28, 29 and 30, 1950] Reference

One of them questioned him, persisting in accusing him of having fired or caused others to fire on the Germans, and warned him that he was about to die.    From Wordnik.com.  [The New York Times Current History, A Monthly Magazine The European War, March 1915] Reference

"But it should be borne in mind that it may be no worse a risk than persisting wit h a deficit, which is effectively a large IOU from the sponsoring company.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Philips Gives Pension Plan a Stake in Former Subsidiary] Reference

You were like sons separated from their father, and removed at a great distance from his protection; but by persisting in obedience you were entitled to his love.    From Wordnik.com.  [An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, Volume 2] Reference

Laughlin believes that humans can "do damage persisting for geologic time" by "biodiversity loss" — extinctions that are, unlike carbon dioxide excesses, permanent.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Earth Doesn’t Care] Reference

They are so many different expressions, answering to so many different observations taken at different angles, of one and the same persisting estimate of human nature.    From Wordnik.com.  [Classic French Course in English] Reference

"Do you remember what she was like two years ago, Betty?" asked Madeline thoughtfully when Eleanor had left them, persisting that she really had an engagement before dinner.    From Wordnik.com.  [Betty Wales Senior] Reference

It's about persisting in the call for affirmative action, allowing black people to get into the economic mainstream of the country, and the political blood flow of the country.    From Wordnik.com.  [Civil Rights Leader Benjamin Hook Dead At 85] Reference

It is something of a puzzle why the Apple CEO is persisting with the TV device, which lets people rent movies and TV shows via the Internet and watch them on their televisions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Seeds for Apple TV in Washington] Reference