[Two formations: (1) a. L. exit, 3rd pers. sing. ind. of L. exīre to go out, f. ex- out + īre to go; (2) ad. L. exitus (u- stem) going out, departure, n. of action f. exīre.
In the subst. use the two formations often do not admit of being distinguished; senses B. 1–3 appear to belong chiefly to the first, while B. 4 (at least chiefly) and B. 5 belong to the second.]
A. Used as a Latin word in stage directions; formerly EXEAT was also used. Also transf.
[c. 1485. Digby Myst., II. 244. Et exiat Deus. Ibid., IV. 1423. Tunc exit Iohannes; et dicit Petrus.]
1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 743. Awaye now wyll I rounde. Exit.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 248. Six yeares we banish him, and he shall go. Exit.
a. 1652. Brome, Love-sick Court, III. i. And kill’d the Patient was but sick before. Exit.
1747. Smollett, Regicide, IV. vi. I hope to see thee bloom With vernal freshness, and again unfold Thy beauties to the sun! [Exit Dunbar.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., II. 284. So exit Clotilda and enter Bertram.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. IV. iv. 204–5. Come! a bon mot, or a calembourg, or exit Mr. Vivian Grey.
B. sb.
1. The departure of a player from the stage.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 598. Keepe some state in thy exit, and vanish. Ibid. (1600), A. Y. L., II. vii. 141. They haue their Exits and their Entrances.
1648. C. Walker, Relat. & Observ., 18. My Exit shall be accompanied with an applauze.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 51, ¶ 6. When the Actors made their Exit.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xx. 192. The eyes of all … were upon her, as she made her exit.
b. transf. and fig.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., VI. 231. This sleep was upon the exit of his vision.
1685. Gracian’s Courtiers Orac., 58. The difficult matter is to have the same applause at ones exit.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr. (1858), 234. The last exit of us all is in a Fire-Chariot of Pain.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 126. Progress would mean something more than mere entrances and exits on the theatre of office.
c. esp. Departure from the scene of life; death.
1661. Feltham, Lusoria, xxiii. On Sir R. Cotton. He scorn’d an Exit by the common means.
1684–5. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 382, III. 338. He made as very glorious christian exit … as ere was known.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 448. Such of our malefactors as make a penitent exit.
1794. Scott, in Lockhart, Life (1837), I. vii. 222. I stayed … in town to witness the exit of the ci-devant Jacobin, Mr Watt.
2. A going out or forth, a departure from any place or situation; an emergence; also, liberty or opportunity to go out, passage out of any place.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 4. Sowre is the Exit … Of the salacious Cyprian Emperess.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., vi. 26. They might finde an easie either entrance, or exit almost everywhere.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., VII. iv. 390. There should be one part provided for the Formation of the Body before it’s Exit into the World.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 320. The cover should contain two holes, one for the exit of the steam, [etc.].
1829. Lytton, Devereux, IV. i. No one had perceived their entrance or exit.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, xxxv. The man had just given admission or exit to some one.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, viii. § 393. There is sometimes, if not always, another exit of warm water from the Indian Ocean.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner. & Ferns, 271. A leaf-trace consisting of a single bundle, which does not divide into three bundles till its exit at the node into the leaf.
fig. 1791. Paine, Rts. Man (ed. 4), 72. This species of imaginary consequence … hastens to its exit.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VI. l. 175. Life, she urged, is over; nought remains to look for but a decent exit from it.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 76. Forgetfulness is the exit of memory.
† 3. The last portion or end of anything. Obs.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. xlviii. 76. The exit of the Verse will tell him.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva (1776), 125. Towards the exit of January, or early in February.
4. A channel of egress; an outlet.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. i. § 4. 120. The rest [of the rain] … cannot make its way to Wells, the perpendicular Fissures, or the like Exits.
1786. W. Gilpin, Mts. & Lakes Cumbrld., I. 165. At the conclusion of this immense amphitheatre … we found an exit.
1881. Jowett, Thucyd., I. 66. An enclosure … which was surrounded by a great ditch and had no exit.
5. = L. exitus terræ.
[1597. Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v., Exitus Terræ, the rentes, fruites, and profites of the land.]
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxviii. 674. The exits of the manor are little more than a fourth of the amount recorded in 1332.
6. attrib.
1852–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 464/1. Their usual exit-pipe is no longer open.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, I. 13. With this exit speech, which he considered effective, Wiry Ben shouldered his basket and left the workshop.
