Search the Dictionary

To separate, select, or pick out; to choose and gather or collect; as, to cuil flowers. From his herd he culls, For slaughter, from the fairest of his bulls. Dryden. Whitest honey in fairy gardens culled. Tennyson.

One who piks or chooses; esp., an inspector who select wares suitable for market.

Anything separated or selected from a mass.

To select by lot and punish with death every tenth man of; as, to decimate a regiment as a punishment for mutiny. Macaulay.

A selection of every tenth person by lot, as for punishment. Shak.

That which is chosen as the flower or choicest part; careful culling or selection. [R.] The laws of Normandy are, in a great measure, the defloration of the English laws. Sir M. Hale.

Selection and appointment for a purpose; allotment; direction.

To select; to borrow. [Obs.] Sir. M. Hale.

The selection for a particular service of a person or a body of men; hence, the person or the body of men so selected. Detail drawing, a drawing of the full size, or on a large scale, of some part of a building, machine, etc. -- In detail, in subdivisions; part by part; item; circumstantially; with particularity.…

A course of food selected with reference to a particular state of health; prescribed allowance of food; regimen prescribed. To fast like one that takes diet. Shak. Diet kitchen, a kitchen in which diet is prepared for invalids; a charitable establishment that provides proper food for the sick poor.

of Plato; the disciples of our Savior. The disciples, or The twelve disciples, the twelve selected companions of Jesus; -- also called the apostles. -- Disciples of Christ. See Christian, n., 3, and Campbellite.

A selecting or detaching of soldiers from an army, or from any part of it, or from a military post; also from any district, or any company or collection of persons, or from the people at large; also, the body of men thus drafted. Several of the States had supplied the deficiency by drafts to serve for the year. Marshal…

aw from a military band or post, or from any district, company, or society; to detach; to select. Some royal seminary in Upper Egypt, from whence they drafted novices to supply their colleges and temples. Holwell.

The act of selecting or detaching soldiers; a draft (see Draft, n., 2)

To select by the drawing of lots. Provided magistracies were filled by men freely chosen or drawn. Freeman.

arry before ordination and to keep their wives afterward, but not to marry a second time, selects its bishops from the monastic clergy only, recognizes the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon as the three necessary degrees of orders, venerates relics and icons, and has an elaborate ritual.

Selecting; choosing (what is true or excellent in doctrines, opinions, etc.) from various sources or systems; as, an eclectic philosopher.

To superintend the publication of; to revise and prepare for publication; to select, correct, arrange, etc., the matter of, for publication; as, to edit a newspaper. Philosophical treatises which have never been edited. Enfield.

To pick out; to select; to choose. The deputy elected by the Lord. Shak.

The act of choosing; choice; selection.