1855 Songs Biennial Jubilee Class of '57 (Yale Univ.) 3/2 For optionals will come our way.

1900 Dial. Notes 2 47 Optional. 1. An optional course selected by a student in addition to his regular work. 2. A student who elects only optional or special courses.

1930 Times Educ. Suppl. 12 Apr. 167/3 The advanced mathematics paper set as an ‘optional’ by London University.

1934 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Mar. 162/2 Optional.—An optional subject of study. One example, of 1857, is given from Yale. For over 40 years at St. Paul's School the word has meant the class studying such a subject—e.g., the Spanish optional.

2001 Econ. Times (Nexis) 19 Nov. Although you would be able to get postal coaching for General Studies, getting the same for all optionals may be difficult.

1948 N.Y. Times 25 July v. 3/5 Gymnastics... Women's individual compulsory and optional.

1961 J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 309 Optional (gymnastics), a routine that is arranged by the performer himself.

1978 Washington Post 21 May d7/3 Compulsories in eight events are scheduled for Thursday... Optionals are Friday.

1989 Toronto Star (Nexis) 13 Aug. h6 You have to be in a good frame of mind to do optionals considering they're harder.

2003 Yesterday's Region I Zone in alt.sports.gymnastics (Usenet newsgroup) 20 Jan. They were just all very fit, and threw plenty of difficulty. In the optionals their girls took first and second.

a1684 R. Pratt Note-bk. in R. T. Gunther Archit. Sir Roger Pratt (1928) iii. 54 But then must we be sure not to vary from our first design, which many men doing,..have not only disfigured their optional undertaking, but have also taken away all certainty of the expense.

1766 Ann. Reg. 1765 Hist. Europe 90/2 No bank..can issue notes after the 15th of May 1766, containing optional clauses: but such optional notes as are then in the circle may freely pass from hand to hand during any after period.

1809 T. E. Tomlins Jacob's Law-dict. (at cited word) The præcipe was an optional writ, i.e. it was in the alternative, commanding the defendant to do the thing required, or show the reason wherefore he had not done it.

1962 Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 39 Optional stop instruction, an instruction which includes the possibility of stopping the operation of the program immediately before or after the instruction is obeyed, there being some means of permitting or inhibiting this facility as required.

1968 Language 44 31 To account for the fairly flexible ordering of major constituents in a German sentence..we must have a number of optional rules that permute the subject, object, and adverbials.

1779 T. Jefferson Let. 27 Mar. in Writings (1984) 765 Is the case amended by saying they leave it optional in the Governor and Council to separate the troops or not?

1792 D. Stewart Elem. Philos. Human Mind (1802) iv. §2 173 In the former case the use of words is, in a great measure, optional; whereas, in the latter, it is essentially necessary.

1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India II. v. viii. 625 Even this burthen was optional, not compulsory.

1884 Law Times Rep. 51 667/1 It was perfectly optional with the defendants whether they treated the cheques..as their own or not.

1910 Evening News 21 Feb. 4/5 ‘Oldest clothes you have,’ I explained in reply to his queries, ‘knickers for choice, flannel shirt, collar optional.’

1928 J. S. Orleans & G. A. Sealy Objective Tests xiii. 220 Facility in framing optional answers for a multiple-choice question comes with practice.

1936 Life 21 Dec. 5 The new 60-horsepower V-8 engine, optional in several body types, makes possible to lower priced car with lower operating costs.

1971 Good Motoring Sept. 18/2 Rubber mats are standard; carpets are an optional extra at £10·88.

2002 Heart Dis. Weekly (Nexis) 17 Nov. 4 Certificate of need, which became optional for states in the mid 1980s, was originally enacted to control heath care costs.

1766 Ann. Reg. 1765 Hist. Europe 90/2 No bank..can issue notes after the 15th of May 1766, containing optional clauses: but such optional notes as are then in the circle may freely pass from hand to hand during any after period.

1860 Abridgm. Debates Congr. (U.S.) 1798–1856 XIII. 364/1 The optional clause..[enabled] the holder to fund them at the interest which commanded loans.

1920 Protocol of Signatures in League of Nations Treaty Ser. (1921) VI. 384/2 Optional Clause.

1975 S. G. Checkland Sc. Banking 187 With the ending of the optional clause in 1765, it became necessary to become more flexible in deposit gathering.

2002 Africa News (Nexis) 12 Nov. By Article 36 of the Charter of the ICJ, States are entitled to declare in advance that they accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court, but only in respect of other States that accept such jurisdiction in advance. This is known as the ‘Optional Clause’.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. xviii. 274 Original writs are either optional or peremptory.

1809 T. E. Tomlins Jacob's Law-dict. (at cited word) The præcipe was an optional writ, i.e. it was in the alternative, commanding the defendant to do the thing required, or show the reason wherefore he had not done it.