select

From Latin sēlēctus, perfect passive participle of sēligō (“choose out, select”), from sē- (“without; apart”) + legō (“gather, select”).

• IPA^(key): /sɪˈlɛkt/, /səˈlɛkt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt
• Hyphenation: se‧lect

select (comparative more select, superlative most select)

1. Privileged, specially selected.

   Only a select few were allowed into the premiere.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     A few select spirits had separated from the crowd, and formed a fit audience round a far greater teacher.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

2. Of high quality; top-notch.

   This is a select cut of beef.

   • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter VII, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:

     The two sisters at once called on Mrs. Bolton, in a newish house in a row, quite select for Tevershall.

select (third-person singular simple present selects, present participle selecting, simple past and past participle selected)

1. To choose one or more elements of a set, especially a set of options.

   He looked over the menu, and selected the roast beef.

   The program computes all the students' grades, then selects a random sample for human verification.

2. (databases) To obtain a set of data from a database using a query.

• (to choose): choose, opt

• deselect

• celest, elects, scelet

Borrowed from French select.

select m or n (feminine singular selectă, masculine plural selecți, feminine and neuter plural selecte)

1. select