vote

Etymology

From Latin vōtum, a form of voveō (“I vow”) (cognate with Ancient Greek εὔχομαι (eúkhomai, “to vow”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wegʷʰ-. The word is thus a doublet of vow.

noun

1. a formalized choice on legally relevant measures such as employment or appointment to office or a proceeding about a legal dispute.
   The city council decided the matter should go to public vote.
   Parliament will hold a vote of confidence regarding the minister.
   One occasion indicative votes were used was in 2003 when MPs were presented with seven different options on how to reform the House of Lords.
2. an act or instance of participating in such a choice, e.g., by submitting a ballot
   The Supreme Court upheld the principle of one person, one vote.
   There breathes no being but has some pretence / To that fine instinct called poetic sense; […] / The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand / The vote that shakes the turrets of the land. 1862 [1836], Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, in The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.:: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 7–8
   It is important to ensure that shareholders who engage with an investee company by voting know whether their votes have been correctly taken into account. Confirmation of receipt of votes should be provided in the case of electronic voting. In addition, each shareholder who casts a vote in a general meeting should at least have the possibility to verify after the general meeting whether the vote has been validly recorded and counted by the company. Directive (EU) 2017/828 amending Directive 2007/36/EC, recital 10
   If you vote once, you're considered a good citizen. If you vote twice, you face four years in jail. 2004, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →OCLC, →OL, page 158
3. (obsolete) an ardent wish or desire; a vow; a prayer
   Jol[ante]. In you, Sir, / I live; and when, or by the Courſe of Nature, / Or Violence you muſt fall, the End of my / Devotions is, that one and the ſame Hour / May make us fit for Heaven. // Server. I join with you / In my votes that way: […] 1633, Philip Massinger, “The Guardian”, in Three New Playes; viz. The Bashful Lover, The Guardian, The Very Woman. As They have been Often Acted at the Private-House in Black-Friers, by His Late Majesties Servants, with Great Applause, London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard, published 1655, OCLC 15553475; republished as “The Guardian. A Comical History. As It hath been Often Acted at the Private-House in Black-Friars, by His Late Majesty's Servants, with Great Applause, 1655.”, in Thomas Coxeter, editor, The Works of Philip Massinger. Volume the Fourth. Containing, The Guardian. A Very Woman. The Old Law. The City Madam. And Poems on Several Occasions, volume IV, London: Printed for T[homas] Davies, in Russel-street, Covent-Garden, 1761, OCLC 6847259, Act V, scene i, page 71
4. (obsolete) a formalized petition or request
5. (obsolete) any judgment of intellect leading to a formal opinion, a point of view
6. any judgment of intellect leading not only to a formal opinion but also to a particular choice in a legally relevant measure, a point of view as published
   dissenting vote i.e. in particular the differing opinion published with a judicial judgment considered as a source of information

verb

1. (intransitive) to cast a vote; to assert a formalized choice in an election
   Did you vote last month?
   To vote on large principles, to vote bravely, requires a great amount of information. 1848, Frederick William Robertson, An address delivered at the opening of the Working-men's Institute, on Monday, October 23, 1848
2. (transitive) to choose or grant by means of a vote, or by general consent
   The depository may vote shares on behalf of investors who have not submitted instruction to the bank.