[ad. L. ēgressus, n. of action f. ēgredi-, f. ē out + gradi to step.]
1. A going out, or issuing forth, from an enclosed or confined place; the right or liberty of going out, esp. in phrase originally legal, Ingress, egress, and regress. Also attrib.
1538. trans. Lyttleton’s Tenures, viii. fol. 15 b. Free entre, egresse, and regresse.
1543–4. Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 10. To haue free ingresse egresse and regresse into all suche places.
1601. Deacon & Walker, Answ. Darel, 84. I have … obserued … in sundrie Demoniakes, a vomiting immediatly before the egresse of the Spirit.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 437. Gates of burning Adamant … prohibit all egress.
1724. T. Richers, Hist. Royal Geneal. Spain, 400. The French Fleet … enter’d the Bay of Cadiz, to prevent all Egress and Regress of that Harbour.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., I. 13. The other door which afforded egress into the small court.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 Dec., 5/2. Another improvement is the egress chamber.
b. Astron. The emergence of a heavenly body from an eclipse or occultation; also, the passing of a planet off the sun’s disc in a transit; the end of an eclipse or transit. Also attrib.
1706. Hearne, Collect., 2 May (1885), I. 239. They plainly perceiv’d the Ingress and Egress.
1867–77. G. Chambers, Astron., Voc. 915. Egress, the passage of a satellite from the disc of its primary, at the end of the phenomenon known as a ‘transit.’
1882. Daily News, 30 Dec., 5/4. The Transit of Venus…. The egress observations in the West Indies.
2. Anat. Of nerves and vessels: An issuing forth, or branching out.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, VIII. 110. After the egresse or goyng out therof [of the nerve] it cleaueth into two braunches.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xvii. 46. That the Ingress and Egress of the Vessels might be discerned.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 359. The nervous fasciculi … are collected together at their egress from the ganglion.
3. A channel of exit, an outlet.
1676. Hale, Contempl., II. 229. God … as a wise Artist … stops all other egresses but that which fits his design.
1817. J. Scott, Paris Revisit., 142. A lane … an egress from which was shut up.
1863. Whyte-Melville, Gladiators, III. 163. The door … was a private egress opening on the wide terrace.
4. fig.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, V. § 4. 264. His Ingresse into this world: His Progresse of Life: His Egresse or death.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1655), Pref. 11. This present Work … the Authour entreats … may receive a charitable Construction upon the egresse thereof.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, ix. 74. Love then consists in a kind of expansion or egresse of the heat and spirits to the object loved.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., iii. 43. What should prevent the ingress … of noxious trades, or facilitate their egress.
