▪ I. select, a. (and n.)
(sɪˈlɛkt)
Also 6 selecte.
[ad. L. sēlect-us select, chosen, pple. of sēligĕre to choose out, select, f. sē- apart, se- + legĕre to collect, choose, etc. Cf. Sp., Pg. selecto.]
A. adj.
1. Selected, chosen out of a larger number, on account of excellence or fitness; picked.
select committee, see committee 3. select meeting, (amongst Quakers) a meeting of ministers and elders. select vestry, see vestry.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Selectus, chosen from amonge other: chief amonge other: selecte. 1571 Digges Pantom. Ep. + ij b, When they shall perceiue your Lordshippe..doth allow and accepte them as fragrante floures selecte and gathered out of the pleasant gardynes Mathematicall. 1580 Lease in Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 237 These twelve select trees. 1606 Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. Ded., Whom my Muse Doth its select Mecænas chuse. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 819 No sooner hee with them of Man and Beast Select for life shall in the Ark be lodg'd. 1676 Hale Contempl. ii. Medit. Lord's Pr. 167 Not only at the select and solemn times of Prayer, but in the general Frame of our conversation. a 1700 Evelyn Diary June 1647, He married us in Sir Richd. Browne's Chapell.., some few select freinds being present. 1712 in T. W. Marsh Early Friends in Surrey & Sussex xv. (1886) 140 Its Unanimusly agreed..that a Select Meeting be Held in each Weekly Meeting..concerning the good order and Discipline of the Church. 1718 Prior Solomon iii. 653 Select from vulgar Herds, with Garlands gay, A hundred Bulls ascend the Sacred Way. 1731 Gentl. Mag. I. 159 In the Parish where I serve, the Vestry is compos'd of thirty select Members besides the Rector. 1744 Dodsley (title) A select Collection of Old Plays. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. vi. i. 4 The more secret parts of the heathen worship, to which select persons only were admitted. 1819 Shelley Œdipus i. 217 Every gibbet says its catechism And reads a select chapter in the Bible Before it goes to play. 1835 App. Munic. Corpor. Rep. iii. 1496 (Doncaster) The mayor, aldermen and capital burgesses form the Select Body or common council. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 649 To the smaller plot..only a few select traitors were privy. 1873 (title) Cornelius Nepos. Select Lives. With notes by Edward Walford. |
2. Hence, Choice, of special value or excellence; composed of or containing the best, choicest or most desirable; superior. a. Of things, material or immaterial.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vi. 12 Whence all the world deriues the glorious Features of beautie, and all shapes select, With which high God his workmanship hath deckt. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. iii. 74 And they in France of the best rank and station, Are of a most select and generous cheff in that. 1623 Ld. Herbert in Ellis Orig. Lett. ser. i. III. 164, I will come from the ordinarie voice to the selecter judgement of the Ministers of State, and more intelligent people in this Kingdome. 1656 Ridgeley Pract. Physick Pref. 3 Most select Remedies for every Disease. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 513 And happie Constellations on that houre Shed their selectest influence. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 142 ¶5 He has spent his most select Hours in the Knowledge of them. a 1822 Shelley Def. Poetry Pr. Wks. 1888 II. 19 The Romans appear to have considered the Greeks as the selectest treasuries of the selectest forms of manners. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxxviii, His senior..had consigned a quantity of select wines to him. 1868 Joynson Metals 99 If what is called the ‘best select’ copper is required, the refining process is gone through a second time. |
b. Of persons, company, etc. Now often: Unexceptionable with regard to social standing or estimation.
| 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. Prol. 3 Select and most respected Auditours. 1603 Drayton Bar. Wars vi. xvi, Men most select, of speciall worth and sort. 1677 Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 36 The Venetian Embassador made a ball to Lord Ossery and his family and Lord Arlington and his, and some other select company last weeke. 1770 F. Burney Early Diary (1889) I. 84 The party though small were select. 1838 Lytton Alice ii. ii, The Reverend Charles Merton..kept up all the most select of his old London acquaintances. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Ranke 559 Persecution of that sort which bows down and crushes all but a very few select spirits. 1855 ― Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 266 He [the Elector of Saxony] had..a great desire to be a member of the most select and illustrious orders of knighthood. 1871 Carlyle in Mrs. Carlyle's Lett. II. 278 Company at first aristocratic and select. |
| absol. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 112 The first of our subscription-concerts..was attended by one hundred and twenty of the select, admittances being decided by ballot. 1831 Scott Ct. Rob. ii, The public games..where, in the select of their own countrymen, they saw the handsomest specimens of the human race. |
3. Careful in selection. Hence, (of a society or association) admitting only persons of a high class, esp. with regard to social station; exclusive; (of a place of resort) frequented only by persons of good social position.
| 1842 A. Combe Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4) 23 The appetite becomes less keen and more select in its choice. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 316 You are select in your acquaintance. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. I. iii. 54 And I have spoken for Gwendolen to be a member of our Archery Club—the Brackenshaw Archery Club—the most select thing anywhere. 1888 Lady 25 Oct. 374/1 Such a sweet, select watering-place. All the best people go there. |
B. n. a. A selected person or thing. † b. A selected class or group, a selection. c. See quot. 1881.
| a. 1610 Healey St. Ang. Citie of God vii. iii. 261 If there⁓fore felicity bee not to bee placed amongst those selects, because they gotte their places rather by chance then desert: yet surely fortune should bee one amongst them. a 1733 North Life Ld. Kpr. Guilford (1742) 29 In Town, he had his Select of Friends and Acquaintance. a 1733 ― Exam. i. ii. §2 (1740) 32 Borrow of the profligate Speech-makers, or Lyars of the Time in Print, and make a Select out of a Select of them to adorn a Party. Ibid. ii. iv. §144. 308 He..sets forth a Select of the Rye-Plot Papers. 1805 T. Holcroft Bryan Perdue I. 159, I appeared to be the inmate and select of his soul, and almost as necessary to him as his horses and dogs. 1881 Ingersoll Oyster-Industr. (Hist. Fish. Industr. U.S.) 248 Selects, oysters of the first quality, i.e. selected; applied wholly to opened stock. 1961 S. Taylor in Webster s.v., It is possible to buy ware that is composed wholly of selects. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Jan. 17/6 The All-Star game tomorrow night with the selects meeting the Stanley Cup defending champions from Toronto. |
▪ II. select, v.
(sɪˈlɛkt)
[f. L. sēlect-, ppl. stem of sēligĕre (see prec.).]
1. trans. To choose or pick out in preference to another or others. Also to select out.
| 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 25 To select or choose forth amongst many things what is heade and principall. 1597 Daniel Civ. Wars vi. lxxxvii. (1609) 165 Haue you then selected me To be the man whom you would haue displac't Out of the roule of Immortalitie? 1607 Shakes. Cor. i. vi. 81 A certaine number..must I select from all. The rest shall beare the businesse in some other fight. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 141 Of some [reeds] the Arabians make darts and jauelins..; others they select to write with. 1706 Pope Let. to Wycherley 10 Apr., You desire me to select..some Things from the first Volume of your Miscellanies, which may be altered so as to appear again. 1754 Warburton View Bolingbr. Philos. ii. 135 Men..were not always sufficiently careful in selecting their arguments. 1825 Coleridge Aids Refl. (1843) I. 187 A power of selecting and adapting means to proximate ends according to circumstances. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, The party was admirably selected. 1839 Earl Spencer in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. (1840) I. 22 The importance of selecting good male animals [for breeding purposes]. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 657 In selecting rebels for punishment. 1867 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Ser. ii. III. ii. 464 He then soon begins to select out fine days for this purpose. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 25 Would a forger have had the wit to select the most..characteristic thoughts of Plato? |
b. Said of impersonal agencies. Cf. selection 3.
| 1859 Darwin Orig. Species Introd. 5 Any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself,..will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 494 The eruption..not selecting any special nerve territories. |
c. To choose and dedicate to. nonce-use.
| 1715 Pope Iliad ii. 504 The Limbs they sever from th' inclosing Hyde, The Thighs, selected to the Gods, divide. |
2. intr. To choose or pick out something from a number; to make a selection.
| 1833 T. Hook Parson's Dau. iii. ix, ‘The next dinner you give, George, we will select better’, said Lady Frances. ‘We will have up the local lawyer who knows the country politics, and all the friends and foes of the district.’ 1859 Darwin Orig. Species iv. 102 In man's methodical selection, a breeder selects for some definite object, and free inter⁓crossing will wholly stop his work. |
Add: 3. The infin. used attrib. or in Comb. to designate that part of a device which is employed in selecting one of its modes of operation.
| 1974 P. Cave Mama (new ed.) viii. 64 Mama strolled over to the juke-box, gave it a vicious kick and smiled with satisfaction as the green ‘select’ light snapped on. 1976 Aviation Week 31 May 43/1 Activation of the weapon-select button also automatically cues the onboard computer to provide the proper firing solutions for the particular weapon selected. 1984 Mag. of Bank Admin. Apr. 134/3 A new concept in HELP..allows the user to select the desired operation or data file simply by hitting the ‘select’ key. 1987 Internat. Combat Arms Sept. 80/2 It is a select-fire weapon equipped like the rest of the H & K line with either a solid or retractable butt stock and is extremely accurate at ranges to 200 meters. |