choose
[chooz]
- to select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference: She chose Sunday for her departure.
- to prefer or decide (to do something): He chose to run for election.
- to want; desire: I choose moving to the city.
- (especially in children's games) to contend with (an opponent) to decide, as by odd or even, who will do something: I'll choose you to see who gets to bat first.
- to make a choice, or select from two or more possibilities: Accepted by several colleges, the boy chose carefully.
- to be inclined: You may stay here, if you choose.
- (especially in children's games) to decide, as by means of odd or even, who will do something: Let's choose to see who bats first.
- choose up,
- to select (players) for a contest or game: The kids chose up sides for the game.
- to select players for a contest or game: We have to choose up before we can play.
- cannot choose but, cannot do otherwise than; is or are obliged to: He cannot choose but obey.
Origin of choose
before 1000; Middle English chosen, chēsen, Old English cēosan; cognate with Gothic kiusan, Old High German kiosan (German kiesen); akin to Greek geúesthai to enjoy, Latin gustāre to taste (see gusto)
Synonym study
1. Choose, select, pick, elect, prefer indicate a decision that one or more possibilities are to be regarded more highly than others. Choose suggests a decision on one of a number of possibilities because of its apparent superiority: to choose a course of action. Select suggests a choice made for fitness: to select the proper golf club. Pick, an informal word, suggests a selection on personal grounds: to pick a winner. The formal word elect suggests a kind of official action: to elect a representative. Prefer, also formal, emphasizes the desire or liking for one thing more than for another or others: to prefer coffee to tea.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for choose
Contemporary Examples
House rules require an absolute majority of members voting to choose a speaker.
That gays (and other liberals) should choose Canadian oil because Canada “has no laws prohibiting LGBT lifestyle.”
But, Hamlawa says, she choose to stay on the front lines instead, “I stayed with my other daughters.”
He was accepted at both, and told me over lunch last January that he planned to choose between them.
Forget the Kids Who Can’t Get In; What About Those Who Don’t Even Apply?Jonah Edelman
December 9, 2014
Each of us believes what we choose to believe, and facts have become bricks to shore up the fortress of our own biases.
Historical Examples
They will choose competent and faithful representatives for every department.
If there were people in the building they did not choose to show a light.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
The girls can talk quietly and confidentially, if they choose.
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton CampusJessie Graham Flower
What instinct made you choose that shade of pale green for your frock?
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
But death will I choose, in any shape, rather than that man.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
choose
- to select (a person, thing, course of action, etc) from a number of alternatives
- (tr; takes a clause as object or an infinitive) to consider it desirable or properI don't choose to read that book
- (intr) to like; pleaseyou may stand if you choose
- cannot choose but to be obliged towe cannot choose but vote for him
- nothing to choose between or little to choose between (of two people or objects) almost equal
Word Origin
Old English ceosan; related to Old Norse kjōsa, Old High German kiosan
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for choose
v.
Old English ceosan "choose, seek out, select; decide, test, taste, try; accept, approve" (class II strong verb; past tense ceas, past participle coren), from Proto-Germanic *keus- (cf. Old Frisian kiasa, Old Saxon kiosan, Dutch kiezen, Old High German kiosan, German kiesen, Old Norse kjosa, Gothic kiusan "choose," Gothic kausjan "to taste, test"), from PIE root *geus- "to taste, relish" (see gusto). Only remotely related to choice. Variant spelling chuse is Middle English, very frequent 16c.-18c. The irregular past participle leveled out to chosen by 1200.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with choose
choose
In addition to the idiom beginning with choose
also see:
Also see underchoice.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.