except

Forms

1.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.To take exception, to object (to or against).
- Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […].

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.

1.Used to introduce a clause, phrase, verb infinitive, adverb or other non-noun complement forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
- I never made fun of her except teasingly.
- To survive, I did everything except steal.
- Come any time except between ten and twelve.
2.Loosely, used to introduce a contrastive statement explaining why something wasn't successful, didn't happen, etc.(informal)
- I almost walked out, except I remembered the promise I had made.
- They fired tear gas at us, except the wind was blowing the wrong way.

Common· #1771

Borrowed from Middle French excepter

From Latin exceptus.