select

Formsselects, selecting, selected

1. 1
   chooseverbtransitive

   To choose or pick out one or more people or things from a group or set, including data from a database.

   You can select multiple files by holding down the Shift key.

   The committee selected five finalists from hundreds of applicants.

   UsageYou select something from a group, or someone for a job or team; outside computing, choose or pick often sounds more natural.

2. 2
   chosen fewadjective

   Specially chosen and limited to a privileged few.

   Membership remained restricted to a select circle of wealthy patrons.

   Invitations went out to a select handful of industry leaders.

   UsageMost often in a select few, a select group or a select circle; it can be compared: more select, most select.

   Similarexclusive, elite, privileged, chosen

   Oppositeinclusive, open

   Note

   Behind this and the "high-quality" meaning stands a Latin participle, sēlēctus, "chosen out", from sē- "apart" and legō "gather". The select are those gathered apart from the rest. That is why the word so often travels with small groups: a select few, a select circle, Macaulay's "few select spirits" separated from the crowd.

3. 3
   top qualityadjective

   Of especially high quality; among the finest of its kind.

   The chef insists on select ingredients for every signature dish.

   Their reserve vintage uses only select grapes from the oldest vines.

   UsageMost often before a noun: select ingredients, select cuts of beef. It can also take quite or very.

   Similarchoice, prime, premium, finest, superior

   Oppositeinferior, ordinary, mediocre, substandard

   Note

   Quality here is measured against the ordinary run of things, so a select cut of beef is one better than most. D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) shows how relative that judgment can be when it describes a house as "quite select for Tevershall", fine by local standards.

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