select

comparative more select · superlative most select

1. Privileged, specially selected.

   Only a select few were allowed into the premiere.

   3 more examples

   The child was upset when he was cut from select soccer and had to play on his school team with the rest of the plebes.

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

   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

   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.

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

2. Of high quality; top-notch.

   This is a select cut of beef.

   1 more example

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

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

present singular third person selects · participle present selecting · participle past selected · past selected · first person past singular selected · archaic present second person singular selectest · past second person singular selected · archaic past second person singular selectedst · present singular third person selects · archaic present singular third person selecteth · past singular third person selected · past plural selected · past subjunctive selected · participle present selecting · participle past 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.

   1 more example

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

   Synonyms: choose, opt

2. computingTo obtain a set of data from a database using a query.

plural Selects

1. A button (of a joystick, joypad or similar device) that, when pressed, activates any of certain predefined functions that usually, but not always, involve selecting something out of a list of items.