英文字典中文字典Word104.com

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Alternative \Al*ter"na*tive\, a. [Cf. F. alternatif.]
1. Offering a choice of two things.
[1913 Webster]

2. Disjunctive; as, an alternative conjunction.
[1913 Webster]

3. Alternate; reciprocal. [Obs.] --Holland.
[1913 Webster]


Alternative \Al*ter"na*tive\, n. [Cf. F. alternative, LL.
alternativa.]
1. An offer of two things, one of which may be chosen, but
not both; a choice between two things, so that if one is
taken, the other must be left.
[1913 Webster]

There is something else than the mere alternative of
absolute destruction or unreformed existence.
--Burke.
[1913 Webster]

2. Either of two things or propositions offered to one's
choice. Thus when two things offer a choice of one only,
the two things are called {alternatives}.
[1913 Webster]

Having to choose between two alternatives, safety
and war, you obstinately prefer the worse. --Jowett
(Thucyd.).
[1913 Webster]

3. The course of action or the thing offered in place of
another.
[1913 Webster]

If this demand is refused the alternative is war.
--Lewis.
[1913 Webster]

With no alternative but death. --Longfellow.
[1913 Webster]

4. A choice between more than two things; one of several
things offered to choose among.
[1913 Webster]

My decided preference is for the fourth and last of
these alternatives. --Gladstone.
[1913 Webster]