▪ I. egress, n.
(ˈiːgrɛs)
[ad. L. ēgressus, n. of action f. ēgredi-, f. ē out + gradi to step.]
1. A going out, or issuing forth, from an enclosed or confined place; the right or liberty of going out, esp. in phrase originally legal, Ingress, egress, and regress. Also attrib.
| 1538 tr. Lyttleton's Tenures viii. fol. 15 b, Free entre, egresse, and regresse. 1543–4 Act 35 Hen. VIII, c. 10 To haue free ingresse egresse and regresse into all suche places. 1601 Deacon & Walker Answ. Darel 84, I have..obserued..in sundrie Demoniakes, a vomiting immediatly before the egresse of the Spirit. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 437 Gates of burning Adamant..prohibit all egress. 1724 T. Richers Hist. Royal Geneal. Spain 400 The French Fleet..enter'd the Bay of Cadiz, to prevent all Egress and Regress of that Harbour. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. I. 13 The other door which afforded egress into the small court. 1886 Pall Mall G. 22 Dec. 5/2 Another improvement is the egress chamber. |
b. Astron. The emergence of a heavenly body from an eclipse or occultation; also, the passing of a planet off the sun's disc in a transit; the end of an eclipse or transit. Also attrib.
| 1706 Hearne Collect. 2 May (1885) I. 239 They plainly perceiv'd the Ingress and Egress. 1867–77 G. Chambers Astron. Voc. 915 Egress, the passage of a satellite from the disc of its primary, at the end of the phenomenon known as a ‘transit’. 1882 Daily News 30 Dec. 5/4 The Transit of Venus..the egress observations in the West Indies. |
2. Anat. Of nerves and vessels: An issuing forth, or branching out.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man viii. 110 After the egresse or goyng out therof [of the nerve] it cleaueth into two braunches. 1668 Culpepper & Cole tr. Barthol. Anat. i. xvii. 46 That the Ingress and Egress of the Vessels might be discerned. 1830 R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 359 The nervous fasciculi..are collected together at their egress from the ganglion. |
3. A channel of exit, an outlet.
| 1677 Hale Contempl. ii. 229 God..as a wise Artist..stops all other egresses but that which fits his design. 1817 J. Scott Paris Revisit. 142 A lane..an egress from which was shut up. 1863 G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators III. 163 The door..was a private egress opening on the wide terrace. |
4. fig.
| 1604 T. Wright Passions v. §4. 264 Ingresse into this world..Progresse of Life..Egresse or death. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. 1653 Pref. 11 This present Work..the Authour entreats..may receive a charitable Construction upon the egresse thereof. 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions ix. 74 Love then consists in a kind of expansion or egresse of the heat and spirits to the object loved. 1874 Helps Soc. Press. iii. 43 What should prevent the ingress..of noxious trades, or facilitate their egress. |
▪ II. egress, v.
(ɪˈgrɛs)
[f. the n.]
intr. To issue, to go forth. (Perfect tenses sometimes conjugated with be.)
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man viii. 111 b, Two other payre of sinewes..which after they are egressed or gone forth, beget also, by together knittyng, one notable nerue. 1765 W. Law tr. Behmen's Myst. Magnum i. (1772) 11 That which is egressed is called the Lubet of the Deity. 1866 J. Rose Ovid's Fasti ii. 203 Forth from the camp egress'd their bands. |