local option


noun
  1. a right of choice exercised by a minor political division, as a county, especially as to allowing the sale of liquor.

Origin of local option

1
First recorded in 1875–80

Words Nearby local option

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use local option in a sentence

  • It will not do to say that notwithstanding the local option law is in operation, liquor is still at the root of the evil.

  • He tells us that it was a kind of "local option" flood—a little wet for that part of the country.

  • local option has kept a great many towns and counties "dry" for years, and it is a step toward wide-spread prohibition.

    Society | Henry Kalloch Rowe

British Dictionary definitions for local option

local option

noun
  1. (esp in Scotland, New Zealand, and the US) the privilege of a municipality, county, etc, to determine by referendum whether a particular activity, esp the sale of liquor, shall be permitted there

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