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tamper with and arrange for one's own purposes; to falsify; to adulterate; as, to doctor election returns; to doctor whisky. [Slang]

Dependent on choice; bestowed or passing by election; as, an elective study; an elective office. Kings of Rome were at first elective; . . . for such are the conditions of an elective kingdom. Dryden. Elective affinity or attraction (Chem.), a tendency to unite with certain things; chemism.

One who elects, or has the right of choice; a person who is entitled to take part in an election, or to give his vote in favor of a candidate for office.

The whole body of persons in a nation or state who are entitled to vote in an election, or any distinct class or division of them. The middle-class electorate of Great Britain. M. Arnold.

The act of adorning, or the state of being adorned; adornment. In the selection of their ground, as well as in the embellishment of it. Prescott.

A selection of passages from the Gospels, as a lesson in divine service. Porson.

To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book. I have extracted out of that pamphlet a few notorious falsehoods. Swift. To extract the root (Math.), to ascertain the root of a number or quantity.

Casual choice; fortuitous selection; hazard. [R.] No mode of election operating in the spirit of fortition or rotation can be generally good. Burke.

y jurisdiction; a constitutional or statutory right or privilege, esp. the right to vote. Election by universal suffrage, as modified by the Constitution, is the one crowning franchise of the American people. W. H. Seward.

g certain privileges; a member of a borough, town, or State, who has the right to vote at elections. See Liveryman. Burrill. Both having been made freemen on the same day. Addison.

to acquire or attain to (wealth, honor, preferment, etc.) (c) To complete for (a reward, election, etc.). (d) To make the object of one's labors, studies, etc. He was as ready to go in for statistics as for anything else. Dickens. -- To go in to or unto. (a) To enter the presence of. Esther iv. 16.(b) To have sexual i…

A selection from one of the gospels, for use in a religious service; as, the gospel for the day.

A new mixture of old matter; a second preparation or exhibition. I can not bear elections, and still less the hash of them over again in a first session. Walpole.

Any one of the temporary courts held for the election of members of the British Parliament.

One of that class of Calvinists who consider the decree of election as contemplating the apostasy as past and the elect as being at the time of election in a fallen and guilty state; -- opposed to Supralapsarian. The former considered the election of grace as a remedy for an existing evil; the latter regarded the fall…

ual rites or ceremonies; as, the installation of an ordained minister in a parish. On the election, the bishop gives a mandate for his installation. Ayliffe.

A lesson or selection, esp. of Scripture, read in divine service.

reeding (Stockbreeding), breeding by a certain family line of descent, especially in the selection of the dam or mother. -- Line conch (Zoöl.), a spiral marine shell (Fasciolaria distans), of Florida and the West Indies. It is marked by narrow, dark, revolving lines. -- Line engraving. (a) Engraving in which the effe…

hich he belongs, and also to enjoy certain other privileges, as the right of voting in an election for the lord mayor, sheriffs, chamberlain, etc.

he stock market; also, to manage artfully or fraudulently; as, to manipulate accounts, or election returns.