2 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Ex- \Ex-\
A prefix from the latin preposition, ex, akin to Gr. 'ex or
'ek signifying out of, out, proceeding from. Hence, in
composition, it signifies out of, as, in exhale, exclude;
off, from, or out. as in exscind; beyond, as, in excess,
exceed, excel; and sometimes has a privative sense of
without, as in exalbuminuos, exsanguinous. In some words, it
intensifies the meaning; in others, it has little affect on
the signification. It becomes ef- before f, as in effuse. The
form e- occurs instead of ex- before b, d, g, l, m, n, r, and
v, as in ebullient, emanate, enormous, etc. In words from the
French it often appears as es-, sometimes as s- or ['e]-; as,
escape, scape, ['e]lite. Ex-, prefixed to names implying
office, station, condition, denotes that the person formerly
held the office, or is out of the office or condition now;
as, ex-president, ex-governor, ex-mayor, ex-convict. The
Greek form 'ex becomes ex in English, as in exarch; 'ek
becomes ec, as in eccentric.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
ex
adj : out of fashion; "a suit of rather antique appearance";
"demode (or outmoded) attire"; "outmoded ideas" [syn: {antique},
{demode}, {old-fashioned}, {old-hat(p)}, {outmoded}, {passe},
{passee}]
n 1: a man who was formerly a certain woman's husband [syn: {ex-husband}]
2: a woman who was formerly a particular man's wife; "all his
exes live in Texas" [syn: {exwife}]