Citations:except

English citations of except

			1603 1611 1658	1749	1843		2007
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1. (English conjunction)
   • unless
     • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Folio Society 2006, p. 34:

       they seeme to have so much the lesser feare to mistake or forget themselves, which also notwithstanding being an airie bodie, and without hold-fast, may easily escape the memorie, except it be well assured.

     • 1611, The Bible, Authorised King James Version, Church of England, Psalm 127 v1:

       Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it ...

     • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 3, Landlord Edmund

       How then, it may be asked, did this Edmund rise into favour; become to such astonishing extent a recognised Farmer's Friend? Really, except it were by doing justly and loving mercy, to an unprecedented extent, one does not know.

2. (English verb)
   • (transitive)
     • 2007, Glen Bowersock, ‘Provocateur’, London Review of Books 29:4, p. 17:

       But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.

   • (intransitive)
     • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin 2005, p. 23:

       The Athenians might fairly except against the practise of Democritus to be buried up in honey; as fearing to embezzle a great commodity of their Countrey

     • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 96:

       he was a great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have passed for a connoisseur; for he always excepted against the finest compositions of Mr Handel.