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To have or take pleasure in; hence, to choose; to wish; to desire; to will. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he. Ps. cxxxv. 6. A man doing as he wills, and doing as he pleases, are the same things in common speech. J. Edwards.

To elect or choose beforehand. [R.] Walter Harte.

A previous liking; a prepossession of mind in favor of something; predisposition to choose or like; partiality. Burke.

mation, favor, or liking; to regard or honor before another; to hold in greater favor; to choose rather; -- often followed by to, before, or above. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Ps. cxxxvii. 6. Preferred an infamous peace before a most just war. Knolles. Preferred stock, stock which takes a dividend bef…

In preference; by choice. To choose Plautus preferably to Terence. Dennis.

To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark; -- sometimes with off. Some who are pricked for sheriffs. Bacon. Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off. Sir W. Scott. Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked. Shak.

egarded as exercising a constant wise prescience. The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. Milton.

call may be combined in one instrument, the holder of which may either buy or sell as he chooses at the fixed price. Johnson's Cyc.

More readily or willingly; preferably. My soul chooseth . . . death rather than my life. Job vii. 15.

ether. The prelatical party complained that, to swell a number the nonconformists did not choose, but scrape, subscribers. Fuller.

To choose and take from a number; to take by preference from among others; to pick out; to cull; as, to select the best authors for perusal. "One peculiar nation to select." Milton. The pious chief . . . A hundred youths from all his train selects. Dryden.

L. Scott. -- Side by side, close together and abreast; in company or along with. -- To choose sides, to select those who shall compete, as in a game, on either side. -- To take sides, to attach one's self to, or give assistance to, one of two opposing sides or parties.

To select, as an individual person or thing, from among a number; to choose out from others; to separate. Dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark. Bacon. His blood! she faintly screamed her mind Still singling one from all mankind. More.

To choose from a number; to select; to cull. That he may sort out a worthy spouse. Chapman. I'll sort some other time to visit you. Shak.

destroy; to kill; to put an end to. [Obs.] And gave him to the queen, all at her will To choose whether she would him save or spill. Chaucer. Greater glory think [it] to save than spill. Spenser.

a ruling spirit; a schismatic spirit. Such spirits as he desired to please, such would I choose for my judges. Dryden.

To make selection of; to choose; also, to turn to; to have recourse to; as, to take the road to the right. Saul said, Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken. 1 Sam. xiv. 42. The violence of storming is the course which God is forced to take for the destroying . . . of sinners. Hammond.…

y think on Shak. Thoughts come crowding in so fast upon me, that my only difficulty is to choose or to reject. Dryden. All their thoughts are against me for evil. Ps. lvi. 5.

To choose by suffrage; to elecas, to vote a candidate into office.

To choose; to select. [Obs.] "Wailed wine and meats." Henryson.