noun Technical meaning of exit 1. (programming) A library function in the C and Unix run-time library that causes the program to terminate and return control to the shell. The alternative to calling "exit" is simply to "fall off the end" of the program or its top-level, main, routine. Equivalent functions, possibly with different names, exist in pretty much every programming language, e.g. "exit" in Microsoft DOS or "END" in BASIC. On exit, the run-time system closes open files and releases other resources. An exit status code (a small integer, with zero meaning OK and other values typically indicating some kind of error) can be passed as the only argument to "exit"; this will be made available to the shell. Some languages allow the programmer to set up exit handler code which will be called before the standard system clean-up actions. 2. Any point in a piece of code where control is returned to the caller, possibly activating one or more user-provided exit handlers. This might be a return statement, exit call (in sense 1 above) or code that raises an error condition (either intentionally or unintentionally). If the exit is from the top-level routine then such a point would typically terminate the whole program, as in sense 1. 1
noun exit way out 1
intransitive verb exit leave 1
transitive verb exit leave somewhere 1
noun exit sb: leaving 1
noun exit from highway, motorway 1
noun exit A way out, especially of a public building, room, or passenger vehicle. 1
countable noun exit The exit is the door through which you can leave a public building. 0
countable noun exit An exit on a motorway or highway is a place where traffic can leave it. 0
countable noun exit If you refer to someone's exit, you are referring to the way that they left a room or building, or the fact that they left it. 0
countable noun exit If you refer to someone's exit, you are referring to the way that they left a situation or activity, or the fact that they left it. 0
verb exit If you exit from a room or building, you leave it. 0
verb exit If you exit a computer program or system, you stop running it. 0
verb exit Exit is also a noun. 0
noun exit a way out; door or gate by which people may leave 0
noun exit the act or an instance of going out; departure 0
noun exit the act of leaving or right to leave a particular place 0
noun exit (as modifier) 0
noun exit departure from life; death 0
noun exit the act of going offstage 0
noun exit (in Britain) a point at which vehicles may leave or join a motorway 0
noun exit the act of losing the lead deliberately 0
noun exit a card enabling one to do this 0
verb exit to go away or out; depart; leave 0
verb exit to go offstage: used as a stage direction 0
verb exit to lose the lead deliberately 0
noun exit A way out. 0
verb exit to leave (a computer program or system) 0
noun exit A passage or gate from inside someplace to the outside, outgang. 0
noun exit (in Britain) a society that seeks to promote the legitimization of voluntary euthanasia 0
noun exit The action of leaving. 0
noun exit an actor's departure from the stage 0
noun exit Death. 0
noun exit a going out; departure 0
verb exit To go out. 0
noun exit a way out; doorway or passage leading out 0
verb exit To leave. 0
noun exit he (or she) leaves the stage 0
verb exit To die. 0
noun exit a ramp or road leading from an expressway 0
intransitive verb exit to leave; depart 0
verb transitive exit to leave (a building, road, vehicle, etc.) 0
verb transitive exit to finish using and close (a program) 0
