Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

EXCEPTING — EXCUSABLE

EXCEPTING, ppr. Taking or leaving out; excluding.

1. This word is also used in the sense of except, as above explained. The prisoners were all condemned, except in three. This is an anomalous use of the word, unless, in some cases, it may be referred to a pronoun. Excepted would be better: three excepted; three being excepted.

EXCEPTION, n. The act of excepting, or excluding from a number designated, or from a description; exclusion. All the representatives voted for the bill, with the exception of five. All the land is in tillage, with an exception of two acres.

1. Exclusion from what is comprehended in a general rule or proposition.

2. That which is excepted, excluded, or separated from others in a general description; the person or thing specified as distinct or not included. Almost every general rule has its exceptions.

3. An objection; that which is or may be offered in opposition to a rule, proposition, statement or allegation; with to; sometimes with against. He made some exceptions to the argument.

4. Objection with dislike; offense; slight anger or resentment; with at, to or against, and commonly used with take; as, to take exception at a severe remark; to take exception to what was said.

Roderigo, thou hast taken against me an exception.

But it is more generally followed by at.

5. In law, the denial of what is alleged and considered as valid by the other party, either in point of law or in pleading; or an allegation against the sufficiency of an answer. In law, it is a stop or stay to an action, and it is either dilatory or peremptory.

6. A saving clause in a writing.

Bill of exceptions, in law, is a statement of exceptions to evidence, filed by the party, and which the judge must sign or seal.

EXCEPTIONABLE, a. Liable to objection.

This passage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole poem.

EXCEPTIOUS, a. Peevish; disposed or apt to cavil, or take exceptions. [Little used.]

EXCEPTIOUSNESS, n. Disposition to cavil.

EXCEPTIVE, a. Including an exception; as an exceptive preposition.

1. Making or being an exception.

EXCEPTLESS, a. Omitting all exception. [Not in use.]

EXCEPTOR, n. One who objects, or makes exceptions.

EXCERN, v.t. [L. excerno; ex and cerno; Gr. to separate.]

To separate and emit through the pores, or through small passages of the body; to strain out; to excrete; as, fluids are excerned in perspiration.

EXCERNED, pp. Separated; excreted; emitted through the capillary vessels of the body.

EXCERNING, ppr. Emitting through the small passages; excreting.

EXCERP, v.t. [L. excerpo.] To pick out. [Little used.]

EXCERPT, v.t. [L. excerpo; ex and carpo, to take.] To select. [Not used.]

EXCERPTION, n. [L. excerptio.] A picking out; a gleaning; selection. [Little used.]

1. That which is selected or gleaned. [Little used.]

EXCERPTOR, n. A picker; a culler.

EXCERPTS, n. Extracts from authors. [A bad word.]

EXCESS, n. [L. excessus, from excedo. See Exceed.]

1. Literally, that which exceeds any measure or limit, or which exceeds something else, or a going beyond a just line or point. Hence, superfluity; that which is beyond necessity or wants; as an excess of provisions; excess of light.

2. That which is beyond the common measure, proportion, or due quantity; as the excess of a limb; the excess of bile in the system.

3. Super abundance of any thing.

4. Any transgression of due limits.

5. In morals, any indulgence of appetite, passion or exertion, beyond the rules of God’s word, or beyond any rule of propriety; intemperance in gratifications; as excess in eating or drinking; excess of joy; excess of grief; excess of love, or of anger; excess of labor.

6. In arithmetic and geometry, the difference between any two unequal numbers or quantities; that which remains when the lesser number or quantity is taken from the greater.

EXCESSIVE, a. Beyond any given degree, measure or limit, or beyond the common measure or proportion; as the excessive bulk of a man; excessive labor; excessive wages.

1. Beyond the established laws of morality and religion, or beyond the bounds of justice, fitness, propriety, expedience or utility; as excessive indulgence of any kind.

Excessive bail shall not be required.

2. Extravagant; unreasonable. His expenditures of money were excessive.

3. Vehement; violent; as excessive passion.

EXCESSIVELY, adv. In an extreme degree; beyond measure; exceedingly; as excessively impatient; excessively grieved.

1. Vehemently; violently; as, the wind blew excessively.

EXCESSIVENESS, n. The state or quality of being excessive; excess.

EXCHANGE, v.t.

1. In commerce, to give one thing or commodity for another; to alienate or transfer the property of a thing and receive in compensation for it something of supposed equal value; to barter; and in vulgar language, to swap; to truck. It differs from sell, only in the kind of compensation. To sell is to alienate for money; to exchange is to alienate one commodity for another; as, to exchange horses; to exchange oxen for corn.

2. To lay aside, quit or resign one thing, state or condition, and take another in the place of it; as, to exchange a crown for a cowl; to exchange a throne for a cell or a hermitage; to exchange a life of ease for a life of toil.

3. To give and receive reciprocally; to give and receive in compensation the same thing.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.

4. To give and receive the like thing; as to exchange thoughts; to exchange work; to exchange blows; to exchange prisoners.

It has with before the person receiving the thing given, and for before the equivalent. Will you exchange horses with me? Will you exchange your horse for mine?

EXCHANGE, n. In commerce, the act of giving one thing or commodity for another; barter; traffic by permutation, in which the thing received is supposed to be equivalent to the thing given.

Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses. Genesis 47:17.

1. The act of giving up or resigning one thing or state for another, without contract.

2. The act of giving and receiving reciprocally; as an exchange of thoughts; an exchange of civilities.

3. The contract by which one commodity is transferred to another for an equivalent commodity.

4. The thing given in return for something received; or the thing received in return for what is given.

There’s my exchange.

In ordinary business, this is called change.

5. The form of exchanging one debt or credit for another; or the receiving or paying of money in one place, for an equal sum in another, by order, draft or bill of exchange. A in London is creditor to B in New York, and C in London owed D in New York a like sum. A in London draws a bill of exchange on B in New York; C in London purchases the bill, by which A receives his debt due from B in New York. C transmits the bill to D in New York, who receives the amount from B.

Bills of exchange, drawn on persons in a foreign country, are called foreign bills of exchange; the like bills, drawn on persons in different parts or cities of the same country, are called inland bills of exchange.

A bill of exchange is a mercantile contract in which four persons are primarily concerned.

6. In mercantile language, a bill drawn for money is called exchange, instead of a bill of exchange.

7. The course of exchange, is the current price between two places, which is above or below par, or at par. Exchange is at par, when a bill in New York for the payment of one hundred pounds sterling in London, can be purchased for one hundred pounds. If it can be purchased for less, exchange is under par. If the purchases is obliged to give more, exchange is above par.

8. In law, a mutual grant of equal interest, the one in consideration of the other. Estates exchanged must be equal in quantity, as fee simple for fee simple.

9. The place where the merchants, brokers and bankers of a city meet to transact business, at certain hours; often contracted into change.

EXCHANGEABILITY, n. The quality or state of being exchangeable.

Though the law ought not to be contravened by an express article admitting the exchangeability of such persons.

EXCHANGEABLE, a. That may be exchanged; capable of being exchanged; fit or proper to be exchanged.

The officers captured with Burgoyne were exchangeable within the powers of Gen. Howe.

Bank bills exchangeable for gold or silver.

EXCHANGED, pp. Given or received for something else; bartered.

EXCHANGER, n. One who exchanges; one who practices exchange. Matthew 25:27.

EXCHANGING, ppr. Giving and receiving one commodity for another; giving and receiving mutually; laying aside or relinquishing one thing or state for another.

EXCHEQUER, n. exchek’er.

In England, an ancient court of record, intended principally to collect and superintend the king’s debts and duties or revenues, and so called from scaccharium, or from the same root, denoting a checkered cloth, which covers the table. In consists of two divisions: the receipt of the exchequer, which manages the royal revenue; and the judicial part, which is divided into a court of law and a court of equity. The court of equity is held in the exchequer chamber, before the lord treasurer, the chancellor of the exchequer, the chief baron and three inferior barons. The common law court is held before the barons, without the treasurer or chancellor.

Exchequer-bills, in England, bills for money, or promissory bills, issued from the exchequer; a species of paper currency emitted under the authority of the government and bearing interest.

EXCHEQUER, v.t. To institute a process against a person in the court of exchequer.

EXCISABLE, a. s as z. Liable or subject to excise; as, coffee is an excisable commodity.

EXCISE, n. s as z. [L. excisum, cut off, from excido.]

An inland duty or impost, laid on commodities consumed, or on the retail, which is the last state before consumption; as an excise on coffee, soap, candles, which a person consumes in his family. But many articles are excised at the manufactories, as spirit at the distillery, printed silks and linens at the printer’s, etc.

EXCISE, v.t. s as z. To lay or impose a duty on articles consumed, or in the hands of merchants, manufacturers and retailers; to levy an excise on.

EXCISED, pp. Charged with the duty of excise.

EXCISEMAN, n. An officer who inspects commodities and rates the excise duty on them.

EXCISING, ppr. Imposing the duty of excise.

EXCISION, n. s as z. [L. excisio.] In surgery, a cutting out or cutting off any part of the body; extirpation; amputation.

1. The cutting off of a person from his people; extirpation; destruction.

The rabbins reckon three kinds of excision.

EXCITABILITY, n. [from excite.] The quality of being capable of excitement; susceptibility of increased vital action by the force of stimulants.

EXCITABLE, a. Having the quality of being susceptible of excitement; capable of increased action by the force of stimulants.

1. Capable of being excited, or roused into action.

EXCITANT, n. That which produces or may produce increased action in a living body; a stimulant.

EXCITATE, v.t. To excite. [Not in use.]

EXCITATION, n. The act of exciting or putting in motion; the act of rousing or awakening.

EXCITATIVE, a. Having power to excite.

EXCITATORY, a. Tending to excite; containing excitement.

EXCITE, v.t. [L. excito; ex and cito, to cite, to call or provoke.]

1. To rouse; to call into action; to animate; to stir up; to cause to act that which is dormant, stupid or inactive; as, to excite the spirits or courage.

2. To stimulate; to give new or increased action to; as, to excite the human system; to excite the bowels.

3. To raise; to create; to put in motion; as, to excite a mutiny or insurrection.

4. To rouse; to inflame; as, to excite the passions.

EXCITED, pp. Roused; awakened; animated; put in motion; stimulated; inflamed.

EXCITEMENT, n. The act of exciting; stimulation.

1. The state of being roused into action, or of having increased action. Stimulants are intended to produce excitement in the animal system.

2. Agitation; a state of being roused into action; as an excitement of the people.

3. That which excites or rouses; that which moves, stirs, or induces action; a motive.

EXCITER, n. He or that which excites; he that puts in motion, or the cause which awakens and moves.

1. In medicine, a stimulant.

EXCITING, ppr. Calling or rousing into action; stimulating.

Exciting causes, in medicine, are those which immediately produce disease, or those which excite the action of predisponent causes.

EXCITING, n. Excitation.

EXCLAIM, v.i. [L. exclamo; ex and clamo, to cry out. See Claim, Clamor.]

1. To utter the voice with vehemence; to cry out; to make a loud outcry in words; as, to exclaim against oppression; to exclaim with wonder or astonishment; to exclaim with joy.

2. To declare with loud vociferation.

That thus you do exclaim you’ll go with him.

EXCLAIMER, n. One who cries out with vehemence; one who speaks with heat, passion or much noise; as an exclaimer against tyranny.

EXCLAIMING, ppr. Crying out; vociferating; speaking with heat or passion.

EXCLAMATION, n. Outcry; noisy talk; clamor; as exclamations against abuses in government.

1. Vehement vociferation.

Thus will I drown your exclamations.

2. Emphatical utterance; a vehement extension or elevation of voice; ecphonesis; as, O dismal night!

3. A note by which emphatical utterance or outcry is marked: thus!

4. In grammar, a word expressing outcry; an interjection; a word expressing some passion, as wonder, fear or grief.

EXCLAMATORY, a. Using exclamation; as an exclamatory speaker.

1. Containing or expressing exclamation; as an exclamatory phrase.

EXCLUDE, v.t. [L. excludo; ex and claudo, to shut.] Properly, to thrust out or eject; but used as synonymous with preclude.

1. To thrust out; to eject; as, to exclude young animals from the womb or from eggs.

2. To hinder from entering or admission; to shut out; as, one body excludes another from occupying the same space. The church ought to exclude immoral men from the communion.

3. To debar; to hinder from participation or enjoyment. European nations, in time of peace, exclude our merchants from the commerce of their colonies. In some of the states, no man who pays taxes is excluded from the privilege of voting for representatives.

4. To except; not to comprehend or include in a privilege, grant, proposition, argument, description, order, species, genus, etc. in a general sense.

EXCLUDED, pp. Thrust out; shut out; hindered or prohibited from entrance or admission; debarred; not included or comprehended.

EXCLUDING, ppr. Ejecting; hindering from entering; debarring; not comprehending.

EXCLUSION, n. s as z. The act of excluding, or of thrusting out; ejection; as the exclusion of a fetus.

1. The act of denying entrance or admission; a shutting out.

2. The act of debarring from participation in a privilege, benefit, use or enjoyment.

3. Rejection; non-reception or admission, in a general sense.

4. Exception.

5. Ejection; that which is emitted or thrown out.

EXCLUSIONIST, n. One who would preclude another from some privilege.

EXCLUSIVE, a. Having the power of preventing entrance; as exclusive bars.

1. Debarring from participation; possessed and enjoyed to the exclusion of others; as an exclusive privilege.

2. Not taking into the account; not including or comprehending; as, the general had five thousand troops, exclusive of artillery and cavalry. He sent me all the numbers from 78 to 94 exclusive; that is, all the numbers between 78 and 94, but these numbers, the first and last, are excepted or not included.

EXCLUSIVELY, adv. Without admission of others to participation; with the exclusion of all others; as, to enjoy a privilege exclusively.

1. Without comprehension in an account or number; not inclusively.

EXCLUSORY, a. Exclusive; excluding; able to exclude. [Little used.]

EXCOCT, v.t. [L. excoctus.] To boil. [Not in used.]

EXCOGITATE, v.t. [L. excogito; ex and cogito, to think.]

To invent; to strike out by thinking; to contrive.

EXCOGITATION, n. Invention; contrivance; the act of devising in the thoughts.

EX-COMMISSARY, n. [ex and commissary.] A commissary dismissed from office; one formerly a commissary.

EXCOMMUNE, v.t. To exclude. [Not used.]

EXCOMMUNICABLE, a. [See Excommunicate.] Liable or deserving to be excommunicated.

EXCOMMUNICATE, v.t. [L. ex and communico.] To expel from communion; to eject from the communion of the church, by an ecclesiastical sentence, and deprive of spiritual advantages; as, to excommunicate notorious offenders.

EXCOMMUNICATED, pp. Expelled or separated from communion with a church, and a participation of its ordinances, rights and privileges.

EXCOMMUNICATING, ppr. Expelling from the communion of a church, and depriving of spiritual advantages, by an ecclesiastical sentence or decree.

EXCOMMUNICATION, n. The act of ejecting from a church; expulsion from the communion of a church, and deprivation of its rights, privileges and advantages; an ecclesiastical penalty or punishment inflicted on offenders. Excommunication is an ecclesiastical interdict, of two kinds, the lesser and the greater; the lesser excommunication is a separation or suspension of the offender from partaking of the eucharist; the greater, is an absolute separation and exclusion of the offender from the church and all its rites and advantages.

EXCORIATE, v.t. [Low L. excorio; ex and corium, skin, hide.]

To flay; to strip or wear off the skin; to abrade; to gall; to break and remove the cuticle in any manner, as by rubbing, beating, or by the action of acrid substances.

EXCORIATED, pp. Flayed; galled; stripped of skin or the cuticle; abraded.

EXCORIATING, ppr. Flaying; galling; stripping of the cuticle.

EXCORIATION, n. The act of flaying, or the operation of wearing off the skin or cuticle; a galling; abrasion; the state of being galled or stripped of skin.

1. Plunder; the act of stripping of possessions. [Little used.]

EXCORTICATION, n. [L. ex and cortex, bark.]

The act of stripping off bark.

EXCREABLE, a. That may be discharged by spitting. [Little used.]

EXCREATE, v.t. [L. excreo, exscreo, to hawk and spit.]

To hawk and spit; to discharge from the throat by hawking and spitting.

EXCREATION, n. A spitting out.

EXCREMENT, n. [L. excrementum, from excerno, excretus; ex and cerno, to separate.]

Matter excreted and ejected; that which is discharged from the animal body after digestion; alvine discharges.

EXCREMENTAL, a. Excreted or ejected by the natural passages of the body.

EXCREMENTITIAL, a. Pertaining to or consisting in excrement.

EXCREMENTITIOUS, a. Pertaining to excrement; containing excrement; consisting in matter evacuated or proper to be evacuated from the animal body.

EXCRESCENCE, n. [L. excrescens, from excresco; ex and cresco, to grow.] In surgery, a preternatural protuberance growing on any part of the body, as a wart or a tubercle; a superfluous part.

1. Any preternatural enlargement of a plant, like a wart or tumor; or something growing out from a plant.

2. A preternatural production.

EXCRESCENT, a. Growing out of something else, in a preternatural manner; superfluous; as a wart or tumor.

Expunge the whole or lop the excrescent parts.

EXCRETE, v.t. [L. excretus, infra.] To separate and throw off; to discharge; as, to excrete urine.

EXCRETION, n. [L. excretio, from excerno, to separate.]

1. A separation of some fluid from the blood, by means of the glands; a throwing off or discharge of animal fluids from the body.

2. That which is excreted; fluids separated from the body by the glands and called excrement.

The term excretion is more usually applied to those secretions which are directly discharged from the body. It is also applied to the discharges from the bowels, which are called alvine excretions.

EXCRETIVE, a. Having the power of separating and ejecting fluid matter from the body.

Excretive faculty.

EXCRETORY, a. Having the quality of excreting or throwing off excrementitious matter by the glands.

EXCRETORY, n. A little duct or vessel, destined to receive secreted fluids, and to excrete them; also, a secretory vessel.

The excretories are nothing but slender slips of the arteries, deriving an appropriated juice from the blood.

EXCRUCIABLE, v. [infra.] Liable to torment. [Little used.]

EXCRUCIATE, v.t. [L. excrucio; ex and crucio, to torment, from crux, a cross.] To torture; to torment; to inflict most severe pain on; as, to excruciate the heart or the body.

EXCRUCIATD, pp. Tortured; racked; tormented.

EXCRUCIATING, ppr. Torturing; tormenting; putting to most severe pain.

1. Extremely painful; distressing; as excruciating fears.

EXCUBATION, n. The act of watching all night. [Little used.]

EXCULPATE, v.t. [L. ex and culpo, to blame, culpa, fault.]

To clear by words from a charge or imputation of fault or guilt; to excuse. How naturally are we inclined to exculpate ourselves and throw the blame on others. Eve endeavored to exculpate herself for eating the forbidden fruit, and throw the blame on the serpent; Adam attempted to exculpate himself and throw the blame on Eve.

EXCULPATED, pp. Cleared by words from the imputation of fault or guilt.

EXCULPATING, ppr. Clearing by words from the charge of fault or crime.

EXCULPATION, n. The act of vindicating from a charge of fault or crime; excuse.

EXCULPATORY, a. Able to clear from the charge of fault or guilt; excusing; containing excuse.

EXCURSION, n. [L. excursio, excurso, from cursus, from curro, to run.]

1. A rambling; a deviating from a stated or settled path.

She in low numbers short excursions tries.

2. Progression beyond fixed limits; as, the excursions of the seasons into the extremes of heat and cold.

3. Digression; a wandering from a subject or main design.

4. An expedition or journey into a distant part; any rambling from a point or place, and return to the same point or place.

EXCURSIVE, a. Rambling; wandering; deviating; as an excursive fancy or imagination.

EXCURSIVELY, adv. In a wandering manner.

EXCURSIVENESS, n. The act of wandering or of passing usual limits.

EXCUSABLE, a. s as z. [See Excuse.] That may be excused; pardonable; as, the man is excusable.

1. Admitting of excuse or justification; as an excusable action.