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. 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.
Hear it pronounced