Forms: 4–5 exercitacion, -cioun, 6 exercetation, -cytacyon, 5– exercitation. [ad. L. exercitātiōn-em, n. of action f. exercitā-re: see EXERCITANT.]
1. The exercising, putting in operation, or exerting (of faculties, powers, etc.); an instance of this.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. vi. 140. Þei sholden conferme þe vertues of corage by þe vsage and exercitacioun of pacience.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xii. (1632), 304. Asclepiades [held the soul to be], an exercitation of the senses.
1743. Fielding, J. Wild, I. iii. He was … never detected in such furtive compositions, nor indeed in any other exercitations of his great talents.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More, II. 109. They have an ambitious propensity for intellectual exercitation.
1880. J. B. Crozier, Relig. Future, ii. 123. Emerson’s religion requires no … exercitations of the imagination to vivify it.
† 2. The practising (of a trade), habitual performance (of actions). Obs.
1579. Burgh Rec. Aberd., in Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. xiv. (1876), 480. The exercetation of all crafts.
1633. J. Done, Hist. Septuagint, 180. You vse to Whet and sharpen your vnderstanding in the exercitation of high deedes and gests.
b. An accustomed employment, a duty belonging to one’s office.
1737. Common Sense (1738), I. 20. Not to mention what a fatal Hinderance a prominent Abdomen would prove to his royal Exercitations in the Seraglio.
1760. Goldsm., Cit. W., v. His health … is still pretty well; nor is he in the least unfit … for any kind of royal exercitation. Ibid., cix.
3. The training (of a person or his faculties) by practice; practice (of an art, etc.) for the sake of improvement; an instance or a mode of this.
1475. Bk. Noblesse, 21. The second was exercitacion and usage in dedis of armes.
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, Ded. From industrious exercitations many vtillities … do flowe and source.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 283/2. Nothing in Life can be rightly done without exercitation.
1713. Steele, Englishman, No. 38. 244. Let us for our own Exercitation … turn to the Description of it.
1748. Chesterf., Lett., II. clxiv. 97. Consider them [systems] only as exercitations for the mind.
1831. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLIV. 99. The practice had become so much an exercitation of subtlety, on the part of its professors.
1864. Lowell, Biglow P., Wks. (1879), 313. The writing of verses is a good rhetorical exercitation.
† b. Spiritual discipline. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (1495), 748. Some beestes ben made for exercitacion of man … and therfore ben made flyes and lyce.
c. 1425. trans. T. à Kempis’ Consol., II. ix. Whan spiritual exercitation is ȝoven of god, receiue it with gret þankinges.
† 4. Exercise of the body; a mode of exercise.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Tim. iv. 8. Bodili excercitacioun, or traueling, or abstinence, to litil thing is profytable.
a. 1500. Prose Legends, in Anglia, VIII. 154. Exercitacyone of body she sette litil by.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 C ij. Ye ought to haue cure of all the body, in strengthyng it with dyuers exercytacyons.
1640. G. Watts, trans. Bacon’s Adv. Learn., IV. ii. 191. Walking [is good] … against the crudities of the stomack, and for other diseases other exercitations.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 898. To the Conservation or keeping of Bees, many things are required, to wit, orderly diet,… air, exercitation.
5. Devotional exercise; an act of public or private worship.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos., III. I. 31. He had morning exercitations at his own house.
1673. Penn, The Chr. a Quaker, x. Wks. 558. Spiritual Exercitation.
1792. G. Wakefield, Enquiry, 14. Diurnal exercitations for spiritual improvement.
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 101. Werner appears likewise to have assisted at certain ‘Spiritual Exercitations’ (Geistliche Uebungen).
6. An exercise or display of skill, esp. literary or oratorical; a written or spoken disquisition, essay, discourse.
1632. J. Weemes (title), Exercitations Divine, containing divers Questions and Solutions for the right understanding of the Scriptures.
1689. Dial. Tim. & Titus, 39 (heading), A Friendly and Cordial Exercitation to my Brethren in the Ministry.
17[?]. in Somers, Tracts, II. 240. Scaliger, in his 323d Exercitation against Cardan.
1736. Neal, Hist. Purit., III. 162. He … published a Latin exercitation upon the same subject.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., Introd. Indulging … a flowing … diction in his prose exercitations.
1876. C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2), 352. A very wild campanological exercitation.
1877. M. Arnold, Last Ess. on Ch. & Relig., 22. The superb exercitations of Bossuet, or the passion-filled reasoning and rhetoric of Pascal.
