Search the Dictionary

o select; to take by way of preference from two or more objects offered; to elect; as, to choose the least of two evils. Choose me for a humble friend. Pope.

One who chooses; one who has the power or right of choosing; an elector. Burke.

To choose wrongly. Milton.

To choose again.

To show a fondness for; to like to use or practice; to choose; hence, to frequent habitually. For he does neither affect company, nor is he fit for Shak. Do not affect the society of your inferiors in rank, nor court that of the great. Hazlitt.

two things offer a choice of one only, the two things are called alternatives. Having to choose between two alternatives, safety and war, you obstinately prefer the worse. Jowett (Thucyd. ).

hermit; a recluse. [Written by some authors anachoret.] Our Savior himself . . . did not choose an anchorite's or a monastic life, but a social and affable way of conversing with mortals. Boyle.

To hear and decide, as arbitrators; as, to choose to arbitrate a disputed case.

dinary avocations. Macaulay. An irregularity and instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering avocations of a shepherd, rather than the more fixed pursuits of agriculture. Buckle.

Open for; free of access to; in the power of. The world was all before them where to choose. Milton. Before the mast (Naut.), as a common sailor, -- because the sailors live in the forecastle, forward of the foremast. -- Before the wind (Naut.), in the direction of the wind and by its impulse; having the wind aft.…

an act or attribute of which another is the agent or subject; as, to judge between or to choose between courses; to distinguish between you and me; to mediate between nations.

asted merchant vessel, fitted only for coasting, or for use in canals, as in Holland. Why choose we, then, like bilanders to creep Along the coast, and land in view to keep Dryden.

The quality of being musical. He chooses his language for its rich canorousness. Lowell.

To choose [Obs.] Chaucer.

A sufficient number to choose among. Shak.

imp. & p. p. of Choose.

See Choose. [Obs.]

ration of the death and passion of our Lord. Abp. Tillotson. The commonwealth which . . . chooses the most flagrant act of murderous regicide treason for a feast of eternal commemoration. Burke.

extent; proportionate. Those who are persuaded that they shall continue forever, can not choose but aspire after a hapiness commensurate to their duration. Tillotson.

sociate. And turned my flying comrades to the charge. J. Baillie. I abjure all roofs, and choose . . . To be a comrade with the wolf and owl. Shak.