except

verb

1. (transitive)To exclude; to specify as being an exception.

   “I find most people annoying — present company excepted, of course!”

   “But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.”

2. (intransitive)To take exception, to object (to or against).

   “to except to a witness or his testimony”

   “Except thou wilt except against my love.”

   “Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […].”

   “The Athenians might fairly except against the practise of Democritus to be buried up in honey; as fearing to embezzle a great commodity of their Countrey”

   “he was a great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have passed for a connoisseur; for he always excepted against the finest compositions of Mr Handel.”

prep

1. Used to introduce an exception or qualification to something previously stated.

   “There was nothing in the cupboard except a tin of beans.”

   “Except that he is wearing polka-dot drawers, he is buck naked.”

   “One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.”

conj

1. Used to introduce a clause, phrase, verb infinitive, adverb or other non-noun complement forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.

   “You look a bit like my sister, except (that) she has longer hair.”

   “I never made fun of her except teasingly.”

   “To survive, I did everything except steal.”

   “Come any time except between ten and twelve.”

   “"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.[…]."”

2. (informal)Loosely, used to introduce a contrastive statement explaining why something wasn't successful, didn't happen, etc.

   “They fired tear gas at us, except the wind was blowing the wrong way.”

   “I almost walked out, except I remembered the promise I had made.”

3. (archaic)Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.

   “And they sayde: We have no moo but five loves and two fisshes, except we shulde goo and bye meate for all this people.”

   “If I ſay ſooth, I muſt report they were / As Cannons ouer-charg'd with double Cracks, / So they doubly redoubled ſtroakes vpon the Foe: / Except they meant to bathe in reeking Wounds, / Or memorize another Golgotha, / I cannot tell: but I am faint, / My Gaſhes cry for helpe.”

   “Offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of.”

   “I am […] not so clear how you will be able to avoid it, except you assert the independence to which your estate gives you a title.”