exercise

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Exercise (disambiguation)

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• 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/
• 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: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:

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

   • 1693, [John Locke], “§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[oseph] 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.

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: [Samuel Simmons], 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.
• “exercise”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.