See Also: selective(dictionary)
selective(dictionary)
Selective Incapacitation(law)
Selective hedging(finance)
Selective hedging(money)
Selective Distribution(money)
selective stain(medicine)
selective reduction(medicine)
selective memory(medicine)
selective medium(medicine)

selective (iou)



selective adjective. E17.
[from SELECT verb + -IVE.]
Using or involving selection; characterized by selection; careful in making a selection; (of memory etc.) selecting what is convenient; (of a herbicide etc.) affecting only particular species. E17.
R. Carson Vegetation management by selective spraying has been adopted. M. Seymour Old men..grow more selective in their memories.
spec. in Telegraphy. Designating a system by which two or more messages can be transmitted simultaneously without interference; multiplex. Now rare or obsolete. E20.
Designating a secondary school or a system of education in which children of supposedly greater intellectual or other abilities are taught separately from others. E20.
Special collocations: selective attention Psychology the capacity for or process of (deliberately) reacting to or noticing certain stimuli and not others. selective employment tax Hist. a graded or refundable tax on employees, intended to favour selected types of employment. selective realism Philosophy a doctrine which maintained that sense-data exist in material objects and that the senses of the perceiver select those which are appropriate to be registered. selective service US History a system of military service under which conscripts were selected from a larger number of people required to enrol.
selectively adverb M17.
selectiveness noun M19.
selectivism noun (belief in) selectivity M20.
selectivist noun (a) Philosophy an adherent of selective realism; (b) a supporter of the principle of selectivity: M20.