Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sheet of paper or a card used to cast or register a vote, especially a secret one.
  • noun The act, process, or method of voting, especially in secret.
  • noun A list of candidates running for office; a ticket.
  • noun The total of all votes cast in an election.
  • noun The right to vote; franchise.
  • noun A small ball once used to register a secret vote.
  • intransitive verb To cast a ballot; vote.
  • intransitive verb To draw lots.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To decide upon a question, proposition, or candidacy by casting ballots; take a ballot or a vote by ballot: often with for in the sense of ‘in relation to’: as, to ballot for members of a club. See the noun.
  • To bound, as in the bore of a cannon: as, spherical projectiles ballot in the bore of the piece.
  • To select by lot; draw lots (for): as, to ballot for places.
  • To vote for or against by ballot; choose or elect by ballot.
  • To choose by lot; select by drawing lots for.
  • noun A small bale, weighing from 70 to 120 pounds.
  • noun A little ball used in voting. Hence A ticket or slip of paper, sometimes called a voting-paper, used for the same purpose, on which is printed or written an expression of the elector's choice as between candidates or propositions to be voted for.
  • noun A method of secret voting by means of small balls, or of printed or written ballots, which are deposited in an urn or a box called a ballot-box.
  • noun A casting of ballots; a vote by ballot; also, the whole number of votes cast or recorded: as, a ballot was taken on the resolution; there was a large ballot.
  • noun A method of drawing lots by taking out small balls, or the like, from a box; hence, lot-drawing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To vote for or in opposition to.
  • intransitive verb To vote or decide by ballot.
  • noun Originally, a ball used for secret voting. Hence: Any printed or written ticket used in voting.
  • noun The act of secret voting, whether by balls, written or printed ballots or tickets, or by use of a voting machine; the system of voting secretly.
  • noun The whole number of votes cast at an election, or in a given territory or electoral district.
  • noun the official list of candidates competing in an election.
  • noun the act, process or system of voting secretly; same as ballot{2}.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a paper or card used to cast a vote
  • noun the process of voting, especially in secret
  • noun a list of candidates running for office; a ticket
  • noun the total of all votes cast in an election
  • verb to vote
  • verb to draw lots

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a choice that is made by counting the number of people in favor of each alternative
  • verb vote by ballot
  • noun a document listing the alternatives that is used in voting

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian ballotta, a small ball used to register a vote, diminutive of dialectal balla, ball, of Germanic origin; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian ballotta, a small ball used to register a vote. Not voting. The ballota was a ball drawn from an urn to select at random, by lottery, a person for a role.

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  • heard my history teacher say that voting is important and to pay attentention to the ballot for correct voting

    October 31, 2010