except

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.

verb

1. (transitive) To exclude; to specify as being an exception.
   But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews. 2007, Glen Bowersock, “Provocateur”, in London Review of Books, 29:4, page 17
2. (intransitive) To take exception, to object (to or against).
   to except to a witness or his testimony
   Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […]. , vol.1, New York Review Books 2001, p.312
   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 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin, published 2005, page 23

prep

1. with the exception of; but.
   There was nothing in the cupboard except a tin of beans.
   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. 2014-06-14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891

conj

1. With the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
   You look a bit like my sister, except she has longer hair.
   I never made fun of her except teasingly.
   Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres. 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
2. (archaic) Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.
   Offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of. 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York, published 2001, page 106