except
Language: English
Part of speech: conj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪkˈsɛpt/
ipa: /ɛkˈsɛpt/
ipa: /ɪkˈsɛpt/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /əkˈsɛpt/
homophone: accept stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
rhymes: -ɛpt
Forms: form: excepte
Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.
Senses: examples: text: You look a bit like my sister, except (that) she has longer hair.
text: I never made fun of her except teasingly.
text: To survive, I did everything except steal.
text: Come any time except between ten and twelve.
text: "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.[…]."
ref: 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:
text: Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
glosses: Used to introduce a clause, phrase, verb infinitive, adverb or other non-noun complement forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
examples: text: They fired tear gas at us, except the wind was blowing the wrong way.
text: I almost walked out, except I remembered the promise I had made.
glosses: Loosely, used to introduce a contrastive statement explaining why something wasn't successful, didn't happen, etc.
examples: text: And they sayde: We have no moo but five loves and two fisshes, except we shulde goo and bye meate for all this people.
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke:
text: If I ſay ſooth, I muſt report they were / As Cannons ouer-charg'd with double Cracks, / So they doubly redoubled ſtroakes vpon the Foe: / Except they meant to bathe in reeking Wounds, / Or memorize another Golgotha, / I cannot tell: but I am faint, / My Gaſhes cry for helpe.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 131, column 2:
text: Offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of.
ref: 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York, published 2001, page 106:
text: I am […] not so clear how you will be able to avoid it, except you assert the independence to which your estate gives you a title.
ref: 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:
glosses: Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.