[ad. L. ēgressiōn-em, f. ēgress- ppl. stem of ēgredi: see EGRESS sb.]
1. The action of issuing forth or going out from any enclosed place or specified limits.
a. 1529. Skelton, Image Hypocr., III. 272. To send a man … To his egression.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 225. Scorpions, which at their first egression doe kill theyr dam that hatched them.
1650. H. Brooke, Conserv. Health, 117. The Cold hinders the egression of Vapors.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Duct. Dubit., IV. i. 490. Mævius … in the instant of it’s [the arrow’s] egression … repents of the intended evil.
1767. Heberden, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 461. The accession of strangers and the egression of the natives being so equally inconsiderable.
1862. R. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 448. The Indian peninsula is a huge cul-de-sac, into which race after race … has poured … without the possibility of any egression.
† b. spec. The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Obs. (freq. in 18th c.).
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 352. The times from the egression to the building of Solomon’s Temple.
1738–41. Warburton, Div. Legat., II. 256. The Egression of the Israelites.
† c. transf. The issuing as a branch, etc. Obs.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, IV. 59. Sinewy and sharpe is the egression of this muscle at the first.
† 2. Emergence from, out of (obscurity, etc.); a deviation from accustomed rules; an outburst of feeling, poetic fervor, etc. Obs.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys, Argt. A j. Leuynge the egressyons poetyques and fabulous obscurytees.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Course Serm., I. iv. 50. Extraordinary egressions and transvolations beyond the ordinary course of an even Piety. Ibid. (1678), 85. The Gospel … requiring the heart of man did stop every egression of disorders.
1654. Trapp, Comm. Ps. lxiii. 1. Egressions of affection unto God.
1738–41. Warburton, Div. Legat., II. 31. All Countries on their first Egression out of Barbarity.
1753. Ess. Celibacy, 80. Such egressions from her laws are degeneracies from the connate standard of human perfection.
