Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EX-CUS'SION, n.

A seizing by law. [Not used.] Ayliffe.

EX-DI-RECT'OR, n.

One who has been a director, but is displaced.

EX'E-CRA-BLE, a. [L. execrabilis. See Execrate.]

Deserving to be cursed; very hateful; detestable; abominable; as, an execrable wretch.

EX'E-CRA-BLY, adv.

Cursedly; detestably.

EX'E-CRATE, v.t. [L. execror, from ex and sacer, the primary sense of which is to separate, See SACRED.]

Literally, to curse; to denounce evil against, or to imprecate evil on; hence, to detest utterly; to abhor; to abominate. Temple.

EX'E-CRA-TED, pp.

Cursed; denounced; imprecated.

EX'E-CRA-TING, ppr.

Cursing; denouncing; imprecating.

EX-E-CRA'TION, n.

The act of cursing; a curse pronounced; imprecation of evil; utter detestation expressed. Milton. Cease, gentle queen, these execrations. Shak.

EX'E-CRA-TO-RY, n.

A formulary of execration. L. Addison.

EX-ECT', v.t. [L. execo, for exseco.]

To cut off or out; to cut away. [Little used.] Harvey.

EX-EC'TION, n.

A cutting off or out. [Little used.]

EX'E-CUTE, v.i.

To perform the proper office; to producing an effect.

EX'E-CUTE, v.t. [Fr. executer; It. eseguire; Sp. executar; L. exequor, for exsequor; ex and sequor, to follow. See Seek.]

1. Literally, to follow out or through. Hence, to perform; to do; to effect; to carry into complete effect; to complete; to finish. We execute a purpose, a plan, design, or scheme; we execute a work undertaken, that is, we pursue it to the end.
2. To perform; to inflict; as, to execute judgment or vengeance. Scripture.
3. To carry into effect; as, to execute law or justice.
4. To carry into effect the law, or the judgment or sentence on a person; to inflict capital punishment on; to put to death; as, to execute a traitor.
5. To kill. Shak.
6. To complete, as a legal instrument; to perform what required to give validity to a writing, as by signing and sealing; as, to execute a deed or lease.

EX'E-CU-TED, pp.

Done; performed; accomplished; carried into effect; put to death.

EX'E-CU-TER, n.

One who performs or carries into effect. [See Executor.]

EX'E-CU-TING, ppr.

Doing; performing; finishing; accomplishing; inflicting; carrying into effect.

EX-E-CU'TION, n.

1. Performance; the act of completing or accomplishing. The excellence of the subject contributed much to the happiness of the execution. Dryden.
2. In law, the carrying into effect a sentence or judgment of court; the last act of the law in completing the process by which justice is to be done, by which the possession of land or debt, damages or cost, is obtained, or by which judicial punishment is inflicted.
3. The instrument, warrant, or official order, by which an officer is empowered to carry a judgment into effect. An execution issues from the clerk of a court, and is levied by a sherif, his deputy, or a constable, on the estate, goods or body of the debtor.
4. The act of signing and sealing a legal instrument, or giving it the forms required to render it a valid act; as, the execution of a deed.
5. The last act of the law in the punishment of criminals; capital punishment; death inflicted according to the forms of law.
6. Effect; something done or accomplished. Every shot did execution.
7. Destruction; slaughter. Shak. It is used after do, to do execution; never after make.
8. Performance, as in music or other art.
9. In music, execution denotes a facility of voice or finger running rapid divisions, and performing all the higher requisites, as intonation, taste, grace, feeling and expression.

EX-E-CU'TION-ER, n.

1. One who executes; one who carries into effect a judgment of death; one who inflicts a capital punishment in pursuance of a legal warrant. It is chiefly used in this sense.
2. He that kills; he that murders. – Shak.
3. The instrument by which any thing is performed. – Crashaw.

EX-EC'U-TIVE, a. [egzec'utive.]

Having the quality of executing or performing; as, executive power or authority; an executive officer. Hence, in government, executive is used in distinction from legislative and judicial. The body that deliberates and enacts laws, is legislative; the body that judges, or applies the laws to particular cases, is judicial; the body or person who carries the laws into effect, or superintends the enforcement of them, is executive. It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at expense of the legislative authority. – Federalist, Hamilton.

EX-EC'UTIVE, n.

The officer, whether king, president, or chief magistrate, who superintends the execution of the laws; the person who administers the government; executive power or authority in government. Men most desirous of places in the executive gift, will not expect to be gratified, except by their support of the executive. – J. Quincy.

EX-EC'U-TOR, n.

The person appointed by a testator to execute his will, or to see it carried into effect. Executor in his own wrong, is one, who, without authority, intermeddles with the goods of a deceased person, by which he subjects himself to the trouble of executorship, without the profits or advantages. – Blackstone.

EX-EC-U-TO'RI-AL, a.

Pertaining to an executor; executive. – Blackstone.

EX-EC'U-TOR-SHIP, n.

The office of an executor.

EX-EC'U-TO-RY, a.

1. Performing official duties. – Burke.
2. In law, to be executed or carried into effect in future; to take effect on a future contingency; as, an executory devise or remainder. – Blackstone.

EX-EC'U-TRESS, or EX-EC'U-TRIX, n.

A female executor; a woman appointed by a testator to execute his will. [The latter word is generally used.]