exercise
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French exercise, from Latin exercitium
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
exercise (plural exercises)
- Any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability.
- The teacher told us the next exercise is to write an essay.
- Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
- desire of knightly exercise
- John Locke (1632-1705)
- an exercise of the eyes and memory
- Physical activity intended to improve strength and fitness.
- 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
- 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.
- 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
- A setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use.
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
- exercise of the important function confided by the constitution to the legislature
- Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
- O we will walk this world, / Yoked in all exercise of noble end.
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
- The performance of an office, ceremony, or duty.
- Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
- Lewis refused even those of the church of England […] the public exercise of their religion.
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- to draw him from his holy exercise
- Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
- (obsolete) That which gives practice; a trial; a test.
- John Milton (1608-1674)
- Patience is more oft the exercise / Of saints, the trial of their fortitude.
- John Milton (1608-1674)
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability
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physical activity intended to improve strength and fitness
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Verb[edit]
exercise (third-person singular simple present exercises, present participle exercising, simple past and past participle exercised)
- 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
- To perform physical activity for health or training.
- I exercise at the gym every day.
- To use (a right, an option, etc.); to put into practice.
- The tenant exercised its option to renew the tenancy.
- She is going to exercise her right to vote.
- Bible, Ezekiel xxii. 29
- The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery.
- (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
- (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
- Where pain of unextinguishable fire / Must exercise us without hope of end.
- (obsolete) To set in action; to cause to act, move, or make exertion; to give employment to.
- Bible, Acts xxiv. 16
- Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence.
- 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter I:
- Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.
- Bible, Acts xxiv. 16
Translations[edit]
to set into action
to perform activities to develop skills
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to take action, enforce
External links[edit]
- exercise in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- exercise in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
