Ex*cept" (?), v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Excepted; p. pr. & vb. n.
Excepting.] [L. exceptus, p. p. of excipere to
take or draw out, to except; ex out + capere to take:
cf. F. excepter. See Capable.] 1.
To take or leave out (anything) from a number or a whole as not
belonging to it; to exclude; to omit.
Who never touched
The excepted tree.
Milton.
Wherein (if we only except the unfitness of the
judge) all other things concurred.
Bp.
Stillingfleet.
2. To object to; to protest against.
[Obs.] Shak.
Ex*cept", v. i. To take exception;
to object; -- usually followed by to, sometimes by
against; as, to except to a witness or his
testimony.
Except thou wilt except against my
love.
Shak.
Ex*cept", prep. [Originally past
participle, or verb in the imperative mode.] With exclusion of;
leaving or left out; excepting.
God and his Son except,
Created thing naught valued he nor . . .
shunned.
Milton.
Syn. -- Except, Excepting, But,
Save, Besides. Excepting, except,
but, and save are exclusive. Except marks
exclusion more pointedly. "I have finished all the letters
except one," is more marked than "I have finished all the
letters but one." Excepting is the same as
except, but less used. Save is chiefly found in poetry.
Besides (lit., by the side of) is in the nature of addition.
"There is no one here except or but him," means, take
him away and there is nobody present. "There is nobody here
besides him," means, he is present and by the side of, or in
addition to, him is nobody. "Few ladies, except her Majesty,
could have made themselves heard." In this example, besides
should be used, not except.
Ex*cept" (?), conj. Unless; if it
be not so that.
And he said, I will not let thee go, except
thou bless me.
Gen. xxxii. 26.
But yesterday you never opened lip,
Except, indeed, to drink.
Tennyson.
&fist; As a conjunction unless has mostly taken the place
of except.
