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exercise - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English exercise, from Old French exercise, from Latin exercitium.

exercise (countable and uncountable, plural exercises)

  1. (countable) Any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability.

    The teacher told us that the next exercise is to write an essay.

  2. (countable, uncountable) Activity intended to improve physical, or sometimes mental, strength and fitness.

    Swimming is good exercise.

    I like to do my exercises every morning before breakfast.

    I do crosswords for mental exercise.

    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

      This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.

    • 2018, Timothy R. Jennings, The Aging Brain, →ISBN, page 107:

      Regular mental exercise keeps the circuits of the brain active and healthy and reduces the risk of dementia.

  3. A setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use.

    The law guarantees us the free exercise of our rights.

    • December 8, 1801, Thomas Jefferson, first annual message
      exercise of the important function confided by the constitution to the legislature

    • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

      O we will walk this world, / Yoked in all exercise of noble end.

  4. The performance of an office, ceremony, or duty.

    I assisted the ailing vicar in the exercise of his parish duties.

  5. (obsolete) That which gives practice; a trial; a test.

any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability

physical activity intended to improve strength and fitness

exercise (third-person singular simple present exercises, present participle exercising, simple past and past participle exercised)

  1. To exert for the sake of training or improvement; to practice in order to develop.

    to exercise troops or horses;  to exercise one's brain with a puzzle

  2. (intransitive) To perform physical activity for health or training.

    I exercise at the gym every day.

  3. (transitive) To use (a right, an option, etc.); to put into practice.

    The tenant exercised his option to renew the tenancy.

    She is going to exercise her right to vote.

  4. (now often in passive) To occupy the attention and effort of; to task; to tax, especially in a painful or vexatious manner; harass; to vex; to worry or make anxious.

    exercised with pain

    • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 88–89:

      Where pain of unextinguiſhable fire / Muſt exerciſe us without hope of end

  5. (obsolete) To set in action; to cause to act, move, or make exertion; to give employment to.

exert for the sake of training

perform physical activity

take action, enforce