ŏp'tion, n.
(ōp'shun), n. [Lat. optio, from optare, to choose; to wish; Fr. option, Pr. optio, Sp. opcion.]
Sense 1. The power of choosing; the right of choice or election.
There is an option left to the United States of America, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable, as a nation. Washington.
Sense 2. The exercise of the power of choice; election; preference.
Transplantation must proceed from the option of the people, else it sounds like an exile. Bacon.
Sense 3. The power of wishing; wish.
Sense 4. (Stock Exchange.) A stipulated privilege, to a party in a time contract, of demanding its fulfillment on any day within the specified limit.
Sense 5. (Eng. Eccl. Usage.) The liberty which an archbishop has to confer on his chaplain, or whom else he pleases, any one dignity or benefice in the gift of every bishop consecrated or confirmed by him. Hook.
Synonyms— Choice; preference; selection. — OPTION, CHOICE. Option is liberty to choose, and has respect to freedom from external constraint in the act of choosing; choice is an act of the will itself. We leave a thing to a man's option, and he makes his choice. “While they talk we must make our choice, they or the Jacobins. We have no other option.” Burke.