exercitation
(ɛgˌzɜːsɪˈteɪʃən)
Forms: 4–5 exercitacion, -cioun, 6 exercetation, -cytacyon, 5– exercitation.
[ad. L. exercitātiōn-em, n. of action f. exercitā-re: see exercitant.]
1. The exercising, putting in operation, or exerting (of faculties, powers, etc.); an instance of this.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iv. vi. 140 Þei sholden conferme þe vertues of corage by þe vsage and exercitacioun of pacience. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 304 Asclepiades [held the soul to be] an exercitation of the senses. 1743 Fielding J. Wild i. iii, He was..never detected in such furtive compositions, nor indeed in any other exercitations of his great talents. 1829 Southey Sir T. More II. 109 They have an ambitious propensity for intellectual exercitation. 1880 J. B. Crozier Relig. Future ii. 123 Emerson's religion requires no..exercitations of the imagination to vivify it. |
† 2. The practising (of a trade), habitual performance (of actions). Obs.
| 1579 Burgh Rec. Aberd. in Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. ii. xiv. (1876) 480 The exercetation of all crafts. 1633 J. Done Hist. Septuagint 180 You use to Whet and sharpen your understanding in the exercitation of high deedes and gests. |
b. An accustomed employment, a duty belonging to one's office.
| 1737 Common Sense (1738) I. 20 Not to mention what a fatal Hinderance a prominent Abdomen would prove to his royal Exercitations in the Seraglio. 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. v, His health..is still pretty well; nor is he in the least unfit..for any kind of royal exercitation. Ibid. cix. |
3. The training (of a person or his faculties) by practice; practice (of an art, etc.) for the sake of improvement; an instance or a mode of this.
| 1475 Bk. Noblesse 21 The second was exercitacion and usage in dedis of armes. 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie Ded., From industrious exercitations many vtillities..do flowe and source. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 283/2 Nothing in Life can be rightly done without exercitation. 1713 Steele Englishm. No. 38. 244 Let us for our own Exercitation..turn to the Description of it. 1748 Chesterfield Lett. II. clxiv. 97 Consider them [systems] only as exercitations for the mind. 1831 Southey in Q. Rev. XLIV. 99 The practice had become so much an exercitation of subtlety, on the part of its professors. 1864 Lowell Biglow P. Wks. (1879) 313 The writing of verses is a good rhetorical exercitation. |
† b. Spiritual discipline. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. i. (1495) 748 Some beestes ben made for exercitacion of man..and therfore ben made flyes and lyce. c 1425 tr. T. à Kempis' Consol. ii. ix, Whan spiritual exercitation is ȝoven of god, receiue it with gret þankinges. |
† 4. Exercise of the body; a mode of exercise.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Tim. iv. 8 Bodili excercitacioun, or traueling, or abstinence, to litil thing is profytable. a 1500 Prose Legends in Anglia VIII. 154 Exercitacyone of body she sette litil by. 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 C ij, Ye ought to haue cure of all the body, in strengthyng it with dyuers exercytacyons. 1640 G. Watts tr. Bacon's Adv. Learn iv. ii. 191 Walking [is good] against the crudities of the stomack, and for other diseases other exercitations. 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 898 To the Conservation or keeping of Bees, many things are required, to wit, orderly, diet..air, exercitation. |
5. Devotional exercise; an act of public or private worship.
| 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. III. i. 31 He had morning exercitations at his own house. 1673 Penn The Chr. a Quaker x. Wks. 558 Spiritual Exercitation. 1792 G. Wakefield Enquiry 14 Diurnal exercitations for spiritual improvement. 1828 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 101 Werner appears to have assisted at certain ‘Spiritual Exercitations’. |
6. An exercise or display of skill, esp. literary or oratorical; a written or spoken disquisition, essay, discourse.
| 1632 J. Weemse (title) Divine Exercitations, containing divers Questions and Solutions for the right understanding of the Scriptures. 1689 Dial. Tim. & Titus 39 (heading) A Friendly and Cordial Exercitation to my Brethren in the Ministry. 17.. in Somers Tracts II. 240 Scaliger, in his 323d Exercitation against Cardan. 1736 Neal Hist. Purit. III. 162 He..published a Latin exercitation upon the same subject. 1816 Scott Old Mort. Introd., Indulging..a flowing..diction in his prose exercitations. 1876 C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 352 A very wild campanological exercitation. 1877 M. Arnold Last Ess. on Ch. 22 The superb exercitations of Bossuet or the reasoning and rhetoric of Pascal. |