Ex·er·cise n.
1. The act of exercising; a setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use; habitual activity; occupation, in general; practice.
exercise of the important function confided by the constitution to the legislature. --Jefferson.
O we will walk this world,
Yoked in all exercise of noble end. --Tennyson.
2. Exertion for the sake of training or improvement whether physical, intellectual, or moral; practice to acquire skill, knowledge, virtue, perfectness, grace, etc. “Desire of knightly exercise.”
An exercise of the eyes and memory. --Locke.
3. Bodily exertion for the sake of keeping the organs and functions in a healthy state; hygienic activity; as, to take exercise on horseback; to exercise on a treadmill or in a gym.
The wise for cure on exercise depend. --Dryden.
4. The performance of an office, a ceremony, or a religious duty.
Lewis refused even those of the church of England . . . the public exercise of their religion. --Addison.
To draw him from his holy exercise. --Shak.
5. That which is done for the sake of exercising, practicing, training, or promoting skill, health, mental, improvement, moral discipline, etc.; that which is assigned or prescribed for such ends; hence, a disquisition; a lesson; a task; as, military or naval exercises; musical exercises; an exercise in composition; arithmetic exercises.
The clumsy exercises of the European tourney. --Prescott.
He seems to have taken a degree, and performed public exercises in Cambridge, in 1565. --Brydges.
6. That which gives practice; a trial; a test.
Patience is more oft the exercise
Of saints, the trial of their fortitude. --Milton.
Exercise bone Med., a deposit of bony matter in the soft tissues, produced by pressure or exertion.