Emily Dickinson Lexicon

E-LEC'TION, n. [L. electio.]

1. The act of choosing; choice; the act of selecting one or more from others. Hence appropriately,
2. The act of choosing a person to fill an office or employment, by any manifestation of preference, as by ballot, uplifted hands, or viva voce; as, the election of a king, of a president, or a mayor. Corruption in elections is the great enemy of freedom. J. Adams.
3. Choice; voluntary preference; free will; liberty to act or not. It is at his election to accept or refuse.
4. Power of choosing or selecting. Davies.
5. Discernment; discrimination; distinction. To use men with much difference and election if good. Bacon.
6. In theology, divine choice; predetermination of God, by which persons are distinguished as objects of mercy, become subjects of grace, are sanctified and prepared for heaven. There is a remnant according to the election of grace. Rom. xi.
7. The public choice of officers.
8. The day of a public choice of officers.
9. Those who are elected. The election hath obtained it. Rom. xiv.