exercised

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of exercise.

   The troops exercised on the parade ground at dawn.

   He exercised great patience with the new recruits.

   Note

   A regular past form: one spelling serves both the simple past (the troops exercised) and the participle after have or be (they have exercised; the right was exercised). The verb behind it runs from training a body, to using a right, to worrying a mind. That last meaning sets a trap in the passive: someone exercised about a rumor is troubled by it, not trained.

2. 2
   adjective

   Experienced and skilled as a result of repeated practice or training.

   The exercised eye of the veteran inspector spotted the flaw at once.

   Years of drills produced an exercised crew that stayed calm under pressure.

   Similarpracticed, experienced, trained, skilled, seasoned

   Oppositeinexperienced, untrained, unpracticed

   Note

   Skill earned through use. Thomas Hardy, in A Pair of Blue Eyes (1872–73), writes of what showed promptly "to the exercised eye," and eye is its natural partner: a practiced observer. In this sense it sits before the noun and takes degrees (a more exercised eye). Followed by about, it shifts to the verb's "worried" sense.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having been used, acted upon, or put into effect.

   The exercised options were settled in cash the following day.

   Once exercised, the veto could not be quietly withdrawn.

   Similarused, applied

   Oppositeunused

   Note

   The participle turned adjective, keeping the verb's sense of putting something to use: an exercised option, an exercised right, an exercised veto. It records that a power has been used. It says nothing about anyone growing skilled, which is the work of the "practiced" meaning, where the word describes a person rather than a right.

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