selectionn.
/sᵻˈlɛkʃn/, U.S. /səˈlɛkʃən/ 1. The action of selecting or choosing out; also the fact of being selected or chosen.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > free will > choice or choosing > types of choice > [noun] > selecting from a number or for a purpose
cullingc1440
outchoosing1440
election1614
singling1625
selection1650
hand-walinga1665
1650 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica (ed. 2) iii. xxv. 143 While we single out severall dishes and reject others, the selection seems but arbitrary, or upon opinion.
1744 J. Harris Three Treat. iii. ii. 205 It should seem, then,..that the Essence of right Conduct lay in Selection and Rejection.
1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 239 There is [in the instinctive action of insects] selection, but not choice: volition rather than Will.
1890 A. J. Bell Why does Man exist? xi. 75 Can selection of food-materials by plants be accounted for without consciousness?
1893 J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (1907) 113 The careful selection of the point of view.
2.
a. A particular choice; choice of a particular individual or individuals; concrete the (†person or) thing selected; a number of selected (†persons or) things. Often, a passage or a number of extracts from one or more literary works; a musical passage or a sequence of selected musical extracts.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > a written composition > extract > [noun]
stitchena1225
outdraughtc1300
draught1382
sentencec1400
article1417
place1526
membera1535
gobbet?1550
extracture1602
excerption1614
excerpta1638
analects1641
extraction1656
extract1666
selection1805
worksheet1823
reading1828
screed1829
sectiuncle1838
snippet1864
the mind > will > free will > choice or choosing > types of choice > [noun] > selecting from a number or for a purpose > the product of selection > a selected person or thing > a number of selected persons
selection1805
society > leisure > the arts > music > piece of music > type of piece > [noun] > medley or mix
medley1626
pasticcio1742
pot-pourri1790
quodlibet?c1809
selection1857
pastiche1934
mix1976
the mind > will > free will > choice or choosing > types of choice > [noun] > selecting from a number or for a purpose > the product of selection > a selected person or thing
select1610
excerpt1830
selection1878
1805 W. Cooke Mem. S. Foote II. 7 His company generally consisted of men of rank and fashion, some literary characters, and a selection from the stage.
1828 B. Oakley (title) Selections from Shakspeare.
1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xxxvi. 395 At this, the assembled selections laughed very heartily.
1857 W. Acton Prostitution vii. 103 [We]..enjoyed in a grim kind of way the ‘selection’ from some favourite opera.
1865 (title) A Selection from the Works of Alfred Tennyson.
1878 C. Stanford Symbols Christ (new ed.) i. 27 They make a selection from His laws, choosing some and rejecting others.
1887 Traill in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 479 The English public..does not pretend to care for poetry except in ‘selections’.
1899 Observer 1 Oct. 5/3 The ‘selection’, which always begins the second part of the concert, was the familiar fantasia on English airs.
1929 Radio Times 8 Nov. 411/1 Selection of Songs by T. C. Sterndale Bennett.
1945 S. Hughes in C. Madge Pilot Papers I. 94 The brass band repertoire..consists principally of marches..waltzes and light opera selections.
1968 M. Ball (title) Selections from the classics for chime bar music making.
b. Horse Racing. The horse or horses selected by a racing prophet as likely to win or obtain a place.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > racing or race > horse racing > [noun] > horse by performance
lightweight1773
sticker1779
maiden1807
favourite1813
mile-horse1829
outsider1836
heavyweight1857
stayer1862
stoner1862
rank outsider1869
pick1872
pot1874
timer1881
resurrectionist1883
short head1883
pea1888
cert1889
stiffa1890
wrong 'un1889
on the mark1890
place horse1890
top-weight1892
miler1894
also-ran1895
selection1901
loser1902
hotpot1904
roughie1908
co-favourite1922
readier1922
springer1922
fav1935
scratch1938
no-hoper1943
shoo-in1950
scorer1974
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > racehorse > favourite
good thing1735
favourite1813
pea1888
cert1889
selection1901
nap1926
nap selection1927
stickout1930
shoo-in1950
1901 Scotsman 12 Mar. 5/2 In 1897..the sporting selections of a highly respectable newspaper..the individual race prophecies numbered 1739.
Categories »
c. in plural. ‘In tobacco-culture, the choicest leaves and the highest grades of tobacco’ ( Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895).
3. in extended use.1861 O. W. Holmes Elsie Venner xix. 210 That is the way..physiological democracy is enabled to fight against the principle of selection which would disinherit all the weaker children.1869 Fortn. Rev. June 644 By a sort of critical selection, the cultivated class improves the breed of literary egotists; it suppresses all but the best specimens.
a. Applied spec. to the action of a breeder in selecting individuals from which to breed, in order to obtain some desired quality or characteristic in the descendants.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > [noun] > breeding for desired quality
selection1837
the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > processes > [noun] > genetic techniques
selection1837
runting1893
sex control1898
progeny test1910
insemination1923
progeny-testing1926
transformation1928
translation1955
hybridization1959
transcription1961
reverse transcription1970
1837 W. Youatt Sheep iii. 60 That which enables the agriculturist not only to modify the character of his flock, but to change it altogether..—the principle of selection.
1844 H. D. Richardson Pigs 51 In the selection of a boar and sow for breeding, much more attention and consideration are necessary.
b. Hence in Biology, used by C. Darwin ( Origin of Species, 1859) and subsequent writers, to designate any process, whether artificial or natural, which brings about a particular modification of an animal or vegetable type by ensuring that in successive generations the individuals that reproduce their kind shall be those that have transmissible variations from the ancestral form in the direction of this modification. natural selection: the operation of natural causes by which those individuals of a species that are best adapted to the environment tend to be preserved and to transmit their characters, while those less adapted die out, so that in the course of generations the degree of adaptation to the environment tends progressively to increase. sexual selection: see sexual adj. and n. Compounds 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > evolution > [noun] > selection
natural selection1842
selection1857
survival of the fittest1864
selection value1892
organic selection1896
post-selection1896
orthoselection1907
survival value1912
kin selection1964
r selection1967
1857 C. Darwin Lett. (1887) II. 123 There is such an unerring power at work, or Natural Selection (the title of my book), which selects exclusively for the good of each organic being.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 81 This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 88 And this leads me to say a few words on what I call Sexual Selection. This depends, not on a struggle for existence, but on a struggle between the males for the possession of the females; the result is not death to the unsuccessful competitor, but few or no offspring.
1868 C. Darwin Variations Animals & Plants (1875) II. 177 The principle of selection may be conveniently divided into three kinds. Methodical selection..Unconscious selection..Natural selection.
1878 B. Stewart & P. G. Tait Unseen Universe v. §170 Thus the struggle for existence bears to natural selection the same relation as man bears to artificial selection.
1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 929 The struggle for existence acts therefore in a certain sense similarly to the selection of the breeder; as the breeder developes only that which is suited to his own purposes... Thus,..through what may be termed metaphorically Natural Selection by means of the struggle for existence,—forms are produced which are as well or even better adapted for the purpose of self-preservation than cultivated plants are for the purpose of man.
4. Australian.
a. = free selection n. Also attributive.
ΚΠ
1866 Rogerson Poems 22 Heathcote never was so gay As on the land selection day.
1880 Victorian Rev. (Melbourne) Feb. 628 It is surprising that the selectors themselves have not prayed the Government to stop selection for some years at least.
b. A piece of land selected or taken up through ‘free-selection’.
ΚΠ
1875 Melbourne Spect. 21 Aug. 189/3 Jumping selections..is said to be very common now in the Winmera district.
1881 R. C. Praed Policy & Passion I. 50 He has a selection down the Koorong.
5. Forestry. Used attributively with reference to a system of forest management under which there is a continuing selection of individual trees for felling over the whole area, on the basis of their saleability.
ΚΠ
1891 W. Schlich Man. Forestry II. 133 The term selection system was introduced into India; it is perhaps not an ideal term, since a certain amount of selection is practised in all systems; it has been retained, as none better is at present available.
1911 H. S. Graves Princ. handling Woodlands ii. 72 The development of the individual trees in a selection stand is somewhat different than in an even-aged stand.
1935 N. C. Brown Gen. Introd. Forestry U.S. viii. 105 The selection method is likely to be best adapted to general silvicultural and economic conditions found in this country.
1950 Q. Jrnl. Forestry 44 15 Rabbits are probably the greatest drawback to the selection system or any irregular system in this country.
1979 O. Kuthanova tr. Jenik's Pict. Encycl. Forests 451 (caption) Diagram showing selection felling in a high forest; four stages of forest with alternating generations of trees in man-made clearings.
Compounds
C1. General attributive. (In sense 1.)
selection board n.
ΚΠ
1940 R. S. Lambert Ariel & all his Quality xi. 302 Methods of appointing new staff..by advertising vacancies and setting up selection boards.
1976 L. Deighton Twinkle, twinkle, Little Spy xvi. 162 Douglas was sent to a swanky private school..but was still unable to pass the U.S. Army officers' selection board.
selection committee n.
ΚΠ
1909 Daily Graphic 26 July 6/3 It is safe to believe that the Selection Committee has done its best, the players will do their best, Australia will do its best.
1932 Q. D. Leavis Fiction & Reading Public i. ii. 22 The Book Society…was started..in 1927..with a Selection Committee of five novelists and journalists.
1978 J. Pudney Thank Goodness for Cake 97 I was short-listed and looked over by a selection committee.
selection panel n.
ΚΠ
1974 BP Shield Internat. Oct. 8/1 Conference members..were screened by a selection panel.
selection test n.
ΚΠ
1935 Discovery Jan. 17/2 The most anxious moment in the design of a selection test now comes. If we take a group of workers..can the new test sort them into their correct relative order?
1967 G. Wills & R. Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. xi. 202 Are we right to ignore selection tests?
C2.
selection pressure n. Biology differential mortality or fertility such as tends to make a population adapt genetically.
ΚΠ
1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revol. 79 [In the Australian area] there is less scope for variation,..so that general selection-pressure never became so intense.
1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. Plants ii. 46 Groups of species caught in different evolutionary pathways may face the same selective forces, e.g. a selection pressure to disperse.
selection restriction n. Linguistics a syntactic or semantic restraint on the concurrence of dependent lexical items.
ΚΠ
1964 Katz & Postal Integrated Theory Ling. Descr. ii. 15 Each reading in the dictionary entry for a lexical item must contain a selection restriction, i.e., a formally expressed necessary and sufficient condition for that reading to combine with others.
1976 Word 27 133 One reason is that the selection restrictions of the verb throw require an animate subject.
selection rule n. Physics any of a number of rules which describe, within certain limits, which particular quantum transitions can occur in an atom, molecule, etc., and which are ‘forbidden’.
ΚΠ
1931 H. P. Robertson tr. H. Weyl Theory of Groups & Quantum Mech. iv. 198 The selection rule for the inner quantum number j is obtained in an analogous manner.
1977 I. M. Campbell Energy & Atmosphere viii. 218 The origin of the selection rules for radiative transitions between electronically excited states and the ground state lies in fundamental quantum theory.
selection value n. value (of a variation or peculiarity) as affecting natural selection.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > evolution > [noun] > selection
natural selection1842
selection1857
survival of the fittest1864
selection value1892
organic selection1896
post-selection1896
orthoselection1907
survival value1912
kin selection1964
r selection1967
1892 G. J. Romanes Darwin & After I. 275 We cannot speak of adaptations as due to natural selection, without thereby affirming that they present what I have elsewhere termed a ‘selection value’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1650- self-offence
- self-offender
- self-offense
- self-one
- self-open
- self-opened
- self-opening
- self-operating
- self-opiniated
- self-opiniatedly
- self-opiniating
- self-opiniativeness
- self-opinion
- self-opinionate
- self-opinionated
- self-opinionatedness
- self-opinionative
- self-opinionativeness
- self-opinioned
- self-opinionedness
- self-optimizing
- self-ordering
- self-organization
- self-organize
- self-organized