[L. exeat let (him) go out, 3rd pers. sing. pres, subj. of exīre to go out: see EXIT.]
ǁ A. In Lat. use as verb.
In plays of the early 16th c. used as a stage direction, equivalent to the later EXIT. [So also Exeant, ‘let (them) go out,’ for which EXEUNT was afterwards used.]
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), I. 275. Exeant.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., I. ii. (Arb.), 19. Exeat.
B. sb. A permission to go out. [So used in Fr.]
1. A permission to leave the diocese, granted to a priest by the bishop.
1730–6. in Bailey (folio).
1855. R. Boyle, Boyle v. Wiseman, 71. Armed with the above exeat, I immediately applied for employment to the … Bishop of Southwark.
2. In English public schools and colleges, in monastic houses, etc.: A permission for temporary absence. Also Exeant, such a permission granted to more than one person.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., His master has given him an exeat.
1806. K. White, Lett., 30 June. He would not give me an exeat, without which no man can leave his college for the night.
1852. Bristed, Five Yrs. Eng. Univ. (ed. 2), 140, note. Exeats … were never granted [at King’s Coll. Camb.] but in cases of life and death.
1859. Farrar, Julian Home, 259. How shall I get my exeat to go to London.
