Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Exception

Exception (ek*sep"shun) , noun

[Latin exceptio: compare French exception.]

1.
The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule.
2.
That which is excepted or taken out from others; a person, thing, or case, specified as distinct, or not included; as, almost every general rule has its exceptions.
Such rare exceptions, shining in the dark, Prove, rather than impeach, the just remark. — Cowper
That proud exception to all nature's laws. — Pope

Often with to.

3.
(Law) An objection, oral or written, taken, in the course of an action, as to bail or security; or as to the decision of a judge, in the course of a trail, or in his charge to a jury; or as to lapse of time, or scandal, impertinence, or insufficiency in a pleading; also, as in conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts something before granted. — Burrill
4.
An objection; cavil; dissent; disapprobation; offense; cause of offense; -- usually followed by to or against.
I will never answer what exceptions they can have against our account [relation]. — Bentley
He... took exception to the place of their burial. — Bacon
She takes exceptions at your person. — Shakespeare
Collocations (1)
Bill of exceptions (Law) , a statement of exceptions to the decision, or instructions of a judge in the trial of a cause, made for the purpose of putting the points decided on record so as to bring them before a superior court or the full bench for review.