Obs. Also, 5 excercyte, -syte, exeercyte. [a. OF. exercite, ad. L. exercitus army (u stem), action of exercising, hence concr., f. exercēre: see EXERCE v.] An army, host.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 21. In that tyme were baptysed … thre thousand men of hys excersyte. Ibid. (1490), Eneydos, xxii. 83. He sawe the felawes of the Emmendes and alle their excercyte. Ibid. (c. 1490), Blanchardyn (1890), 9. He arryued wyth alle his Exeercyte nyghe to the oost of Subyon.
1550. J. Coke, Eng. & Fr. Herald, § 72 (1877), 81. Wyllyam Conquerour … passed, with his exercite of the noble Englyshemen, into Fraunce.
