ikˈsepshən, ek- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English excepcioun, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French exception, from Latin exception-, exceptio, from exceptus (past participle of excipere to take out, make an exception) + -ion-, -io -ion — more at except
1. : the act of excepting or excluding : exclusion or restriction (as of a class, statement, or rule) by taking out something that would otherwise be included
2. : one that is excepted or taken out from others
almost every general rule has its exceptions
eight of the pups were beauties; the only exception was a potbellied little male
3.
a. : something offered or offerable as objection or as a ground of objection or taken as objectionable
witnesses whose authority is beyond exception — T.B.Macaulay
— now usually used with take
taking exception to the majority vote — Bennett Cerf
to whose musical ideas one would seldom take exception — A.T.Davison
b. archaic : offense
she takes exceptions at your person — Shakespeare
4.
a. : an oral or written objection (as to a ruling of a judge or something in his charge to a jury) taken in the course of an action or proceeding at law
b. : a clause by which a grantor (as of a deed) excepts something out of what he before granted
5.
a. : a special plea in defense in Roman law setting up allegations which if they are true will bar the claim even when the facts on which the claim is based are true, the plea being set up in a formula directing that it be tried first ; also : any plea in defense whether peremptory in complete bar or dilatory in delay of the plaintiff's claim
b. : special plea in bar
c. Scots law : defense 1b
d. : an objection alleging insufficiency of some pleading or proceeding in equity