exercise

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Exercise (disambiguation)

Wikipedia

• exercize (obsolete)
• exercice (obsolete, noun senses only)

From Middle English exercise, from Old French exercise, from Latin exercitium.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛk.sə.saɪz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛk.sɚ.saɪz/
  • Homophone: exorcise (one pronunciation)
• Hyphenation: ex‧er‧cise

• Audio (US):

  (file)

exercise (countable and uncountable, plural exercises)

1. (countable) Any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability.

   The teacher told us that the next exercise is to write an essay.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: ">…] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:

     Where noyse of armes, or vew of martiall guize / Might not reuiue desire of knightly exercize.

   • 1693, , “§178”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: A and J Churchill, , →OCLC:

     an exercise of the eyes and memory

2. (countable, uncountable) Activity intended to improve physical, or sometimes mental, strength and fitness.

   Swimming is good exercise.

   I like to do my exercises every morning before breakfast.

   I do crosswords for mental exercise.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.

   • 2018, Timothy R. Jennings, The Aging Brain, →ISBN, page 107:

     Regular mental exercise keeps the circuits of the brain active and healthy and reduces the risk of dementia.

3. A setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use.

   The law guarantees us the free exercise of our rights.

   • December 8, 1801, Thomas Jefferson, first annual message

     exercise of the important function confided by the constitution to the legislature

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC:

     O we will walk this world, / Yoked in all exercise of noble end.

4. The performance of an office, ceremony, or duty.

   I assisted the ailing vicar in the exercise of his parish duties.

   • 1705, J Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     Lewis refused even those of the church of England the public exercise of their religion.

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     He doth entreat your Grace, my noble lord, To visit him tomorrow or next day. To draw him from his holy exercise.

5. (obsolete) That which gives practice; a trial; a test.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, .”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J M for John Starkey , →OCLC, page 77:

     But patience is more oft the exerciſe / Of Saints, the trial of thir fortitude,

exercise (third-person singular simple present exercises, present participle exercising, simple past and past participle exercised)

1. To exert for the sake of training or improvement; to practice in order to develop.

   to exercise troops or horses;  to exercise one's brain with a puzzle

2. (intransitive) To perform physical activity for health or training.

   I exercise at the gym every day.

3. (transitive) To use (a right, an option, etc.); to put into practice.

   The tenant exercised his option to renew the tenancy.

   She is going to exercise her right to vote.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Ezekiel 22:29:

     The people of the land haue vsed oppression, and exercised robbery, and haue vexed the poore and needie: yea, they haue oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

   • 1955 July, R. S. McNaught, “"Foreign" Engine Workings”, in Railway Magazine, page 497:

     The pre-grouping railway managements were very chary about allowing other people's trains on their territory, and there were many instances where running powers granted by Act of Parliament were never actually excercised because of difficulties deliberately put in the way.

4. (now often in passive) To occupy the attention and effort of; to task; to tax, especially in a painful or vexatious manner; harass; to vex; to worry or make anxious.

   exercised with pain

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 88–89:

     Where pain of unextinguiſhable fire / Muſt exerciſe us without hope of end

5. (obsolete) To set in action; to cause to act, move, or make exertion; to give employment to.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Acts 24:16:

     And herein doe I exercise my selfe to haue alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

   • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider ”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A Munsey Company, , published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 373, column 2:

     Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.

• “exercise”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “exercise”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.