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.