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Happening or returning once in every seven years; as, septennial elections in England.

ly on difference in number and position of the stamens and pistils of plants. -- Sexual selection (Biol.), the selective preference of one sex for certain characteristics in the other, such as bright colors, musical notes, etc.; also, the selection which results from certain individuals of one sex having more opportun…

ion, of a sheriff; sheriffalty. It was ordained by 28 Edward I that the people shall have election of sheriff in every shire where the shrievalty is not of inheritance. Blackstone.

-- in this sense usually spelled sire. [Obs.] He was crowned lord and sire. Gower. In the election of a sir so rare. Shak.

A list of candidates, prepared for nomination or for election; a list of candidates, or a programme of action, devised beforehand. [Cant, U.S.] Bartlett. Adhesive slate (Min.), a kind of slate of a greenish gray color, which absorbs water rapidly, and adheres to the tongue; whence the name. -- Aluminous slate, or Alum…

Selection or appointment by lot. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

A book of selections for declamation. [U. S.]

The Parliament of Norway, chosen by indirect election once in three years, but holding annual sessions.

p. -- To go on the stump, or To take the stump, to engage in making public addresses for electioneering purposes; -- a phrase derived from the practice of using a stump for a speaker's platform in newly- settled districts. Hence also the phrases stump orator, stump speaker, stump speech, stump oratory, etc. [Colloq. U…

One of that class of Calvinists who believed that God's decree of election determined that man should fall, in order that the opportunity might be furnished of securing the redemption of a part of the race, the decree of salvation being conceived of as formed before or beyond, and not after or following, the lapse, or…

on the study of manners and customs. Tylor. Survival of the fittest. (Biol.) See Natural selection, under Natural.

A sign or token; that which indicates the existence of something else; as, corruption in elections is a symptom of the decay of public virtue.

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.…

family lands by which the proprietor had only a life estate, to which he was admitted by election.

Happening, coming about, or appearing once in every three years; as, triennial elections; a triennial catalogue; a triennial visitation. T. Warton.

Specifically, to deprive of the right to sit in a legislative body, as for fraud in election. Macaulay.

d; to give legal force to. The chamber of deputies . . . refusing to validate at once the election of an official candidate. London Spectator.

A man who has a right to vote in certain elections.

he old dispensation, and of the Gentiles under the gospel. "The golden chain of vocation, election, and justification." Jer. Taylor.

That by means of which will or preference is expressed in elections, or in deciding propositions; voice; a ballot; a ticket; as, a written vote. The freeman casting with unpurchased hand The vote that shakes the turrets of the land. Holmes.