4 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Exception \Ex*cep"tion\, n. [L. exceptio: cf. F. exception.]
1. The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction
by taking out something which would otherwise be included,
as in a class, statement, rule.
2. That which is excepted or taken out from others; a person,
thing, or case, specified as distinct, or not included;
as, almost every general rule has its exceptions.
Such rare exceptions, shining in the dark, Prove,
rather than impeach, the just remark. --Cowper.
Note: Often with to.
That proud exception to all nature's laws.
--Pope.
3. (Law) An objection, oral or written, taken, in the course
of an action, as to bail or security; or as to the
decision of a judge, in the course of a trail, or in his
charge to a jury; or as to lapse of time, or scandal,
impertinence, or insufficiency in a pleading; also, as in
conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts
something before granted. --Burrill.
4. An objection; cavil; dissent; disapprobation; offense;
cause of offense; -- usually followed by to or against.
I will never answer what exceptions they can have
against our account [relation]. --Bentley.
He . . . took exception to the place of their
burial. --Bacon.
She takes exceptions at your person. --Shak.
{Bill of exceptions} (Law), a statement of exceptions to the
decision, or instructions of a judge in the trial of a
cause, made for the purpose of putting the points decided
on record so as to bring them before a superior court or
the full bench for review.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
exception
n 1: a deliberate act of omission; "with the exception of the
children, everyone was told the news" [syn: {exclusion},
{elision}]
2: an instance that does not conform to a rule or
generalization; "all her children were brilliant; the only
exception was her last child"; "an exception tests the
rule"
3: grounds for adverse criticism; "his authority is beyond
exception"
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
exception
An error condition that changes the normal {flow of control}
in a program. An exception may be generated ("raised") by
{hardware} or {software}. Hardware exceptions include
{reset}, {interrupt} or a signal from a {memory management
unit}. Exceptions may be generated by the {arithmetic logic
unit} or {floating-point unit} for numerical errors such as
divide by zero, {overflow} or {underflow} or {instruction
decoding} errors such as privileged, reserved, {trap} or
undefined instructions. Software exceptions are even more
varied and the term could be applied to any kind of error
checking which alters the normal behaviour of the program.
(1994-10-31)
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
EXCEPTION, n. A thing which takes the liberty to differ from other
things of its class, as an honest man, a truthful woman, etc. "The
exception proves the rule" is an expression constantly upon the lips
of the ignorant, who parrot it from one another with never a thought
of its absurdity. In the Latin, "_Exceptio probat regulam_" means
that the exception _tests_ the rule, puts it to the proof, not
_confirms_ it. The malefactor who drew the meaning from this
excellent dictum and substituted a contrary one of his own exerted an
evil power which appears to be immortal.