Also 7 voate; Sc. 6 voit, voitt, vott, 6–7 voite; 6 wote, woit, wott, 7 woatt. [ad. L. vōtum vow, wish, properly the pa. pple. neut. of vovēre to vow, desire. Hence also It., Sp., Pg. voto; mod.F. vote in sense 5 is from English. Before 1600 only in Sc. use.]
I. † 1. A vow; a solemn promise or undertaking. Obs.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, V. x. (S.T.S.), II. 182. Nochtwithstanding þat þai made solempne vote to appollo, ȝit þai tuke mare regarde of ony vthir thing þan to … fulfil þe said vote. Ibid. (1536), Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 141. King Hungus … maid solempnit vote, that he and his posterite sall use na ansenye in times cuming … bot the croce of Sanct Andro.
1715. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 152. A Temporal Religious Pensioner, or what is vulgarly call’d a Galloping-Nun, without any Votes.
† 2. A prayer or intercession. Obs.
1626. B. Jonson, Fort. Isles, Song, Wks. (Rtldg.), 651/1. All the heavens consent, With harmony to tune their notes, In answer to the public votes, That for it up were sent.
1633. Cowley, Constantia & Philetus, 146. Now at last the pitying God, o’recome By his constant votes and teares, fixt in her heart A golden shaft.
1656. J. Prideaux, Euchologia, 226. Here may be taken in those interchangeable Votes of Priest and People, which are interposed, ‘O Lord, arise, help us and deliver us for thy Names sake!’
1664. Fuller, Triana & Paduana, in Wounded Consc., etc. (1867), 223. Being assigned but three hours of three several days, for the begging of the votes of mankind to help her in her extremity.
† b. A petition, a request. Obs.–1
1645. Unholsome Henbane betw. two Fragr. Roses, 1. A most humble Vote, and serious desire to our most Reverend and Religious Assembly of Divines.
† 3. An aspiration; an ardent wish or desire. Obs. (Common 1630–60.)
a. 1626. Bacon, Hist. Gt. Brit., Wks. (Bohn), 498. Queen Elizabeth … carrying a hand restrained in gift, and strained in points of prerogative, could not answer the votes either of servants or subjects to a full contentment, especially in her latter days.
1640. Habington, Edw. IV., 169. Nothing was more in the vote of the English; then to preserve King Lewys safe in his estate at home.
1656. Sanderson, Serm. (1689), 541. The Glory of God, is to be the Alpha and Omega of all our votes and desires.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, v. ¶ 29. To breath out Moses’s wish, O that men were wise; or if that be too hopeless a vote, O that men were not so destructively foolish.
II. † 4. Sc. A formal expression of opinion by a member of a deliberative assembly on a matter under discussion; a decision or verdict. Obs.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. xiii. (S.T.S.), I. 76. Quhen þe maist parte & nowmer of senatouris war foundin of þe samyn votis as þe first has schewin,… it is accustumyt [etc.].
1562. Winȝet, Wks. (S.T.S.), II. 76. Quhat … wes the woceis and woteis of al [the bishops in council], bot that the thing quhilk wes techeit of auld suld be haldin?
1581. Burne, in Cath. Tract. (S.T.S.), 154. Thair is na ressoune quhy he sould follou rather the voittis of your ministeris, nor ye the voittis of his bischopis.
† b. Sc. In one vote, with one consent, of one accord, unanimously. Obs.
1546. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 28. Tha all in ane vote conselit and consentit that my Lord Governour suld cause the said hous to be deliverit to the said Lord Maxwell.
c. 1550. Rolland, Crt. Venus, II. 494. All in ane voit set thair Felicitie On future thingis, and Predestination.
1582–8. Hist. James VI. (1804), 81. They all in ane voite [1825 voce], voittit, declarit, and testified, that [etc.].
5. An indication, by some approved method, of one’s opinion or choice on a matter under discussion; an intimation that one approves or disapproves, accepts or rejects, a proposal, motion, candidate for office, or the like.
Casting vote: see CASTING ppl. a. 2.
c. 1460. in Liber Pluscardensis (Skene), I. 394. Be eleccioune chosin men of gude,… Quhilkis has the votis of al the commonis hale.
1552. in Rec. Convent. Roy. Burghs (1870), I. 3. To woit about throw that haill nowmer,… and he that gettis monyest wottis to be chosin and sworn incontinent.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 18. Lyk as he haid beine suppreme magistratt apprivit be the vottis of this realme.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 246. Malduin the fourt sone of King Donalde,… with al votis, is declaired king.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., II. 132. The crime being lawfully provin,… be the suffrages and voites of the estaites in parliament … he may be condemned.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., vii. § 14. 119. The civill Person sinnes not, but those subjects only by whose votes it was decreed for sinne.
1681. Wood, Life, 5 July (1848), 231. Both his dispensations for terms and absence from lectures were denied but by one vote.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 192. A young Prussian nobleman … was very near undergoing the same fate…, two votes only saving him from losing his head.
1823. Local Act 4 Geo. IV., c. iii. § 8. Where the Number of Votes upon any Question shall be equal (including the Chairman’s Vote) the Chairman shall have the casting Vote.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. VI. vi. That so, when the rotten hustings shake In another month to his brazen lies, A wretched vote may be gain’d.
1884. trans. Lotze’s Logic, 394. It is sometimes done by simply counting the single vote of the preferred person as equal to several votes.
b. In the phrase to give (in recent use also to record) a or one’s vote.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 269. Lord Patrick Lyndsay that hes gevin the first wott.
a. 1654. Selden, Table-T. (1689), 6. Bishops give not their Votes by Blood in Parliament, but by an Office annext to them.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Voting, giving his Vote or Suffrage at the Election of a Magistrate, or making a Law, etc.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 165. If it were probable that every man would give his vote freely and without influence.
a. 1856. [see RECORD v. 9 b].
c. transf. (Cf. sense 9.)
1652. Crashaw, Poems (1904), 189. Twixt pen and pensill rose a holy strife Which might draw vertue better to the life. Best witts gave votes to that.
1657. Jer. Taylor, Dissuas. Popery, II. I. § 7. 217. But the events of salvation and damnation (blessed be God) do not depend upon the votes and sentences of men.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Art of Poetry, 467. Profit and Pleasure, then, to mix with Art, T’ inform the Judgement, nor offend the Heart, Shall gain all Votes.
1829. Lytton, Devereux, I. iv. You run, ride, leap too, better than anyone else, according to the votes of your comrades.
d. A means of signifying choice, approval, etc.; a voting tablet or ticket.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, IV. xxii. Her voice, whose awful sweetness doth repress All evil,… And cast the vote of love in hope’s abandoned urn.
1838. F. A. P[aley], trans. Schömann’s Assemb. Athen., I. xi. 129. The citizens of each tribe cast their votes of condemnation or acquittal into one urn.
6. The collective opinion or assent of an assembly or body of persons. To take a vote, to ascertain the opinion of a meeting by formal reference.
1582. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 482. To beare the chargeis of provest, baillies, eldermen, and counsale of the said burgh, not being electit thairto be commoun consent and voit of the haill inhabitantis.
1597–8. Rec. Earldom Orkney, lxxix. (S.H.S.), 173. Patrik, Erle of Orkney … sittand in judgement at the head court callit the Harmanstein … befoir the haill woit of the countrie.
1624. Massinger, Renegado, Ded. With a full vote and suffrage it is acknowledged that the patronage and protection of the dramatic poem is your’s.
1632. Chron. Perth (Maitl. Cl.), 33. Mr John row wes admittit master of the gramer scole, be the provest, baillies, and counsall, without consent or woatt of ony wtheris.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 313. For so the popular vote Inclines, here to continue, and build up here A growing Empire.
1721. Ramsay, Prospect of Plenty, 133. Nor can we wyt them, since they had our vote.
1821. Byron, Two Foscari, V. i. Why would the general vote compel me hither?
1848. W. K. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., I. 76. The law of the double vote had been … an implement of war directed against the throne.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 88. One is to be chosen by lot out of ten who are elected by vote.
1884. trans. Lotze’s Logic, 394. A number of groups in each of which a separate vote is taken.
b. In the phrase to put to the vote, to submit to the decision of a meeting. Similarly (of a question), to go to the vote.
1599. Hist. Writers to Signet (1890), 234. It being put to vote…, the maist part voteit to the said incorporatioun.
1681. in Acts Parlt. Scotl. (1875), XII. 45/2. It was putt to the vote, If the Act should be delayed or not, and was carried in the negative.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch, V. 87. Cato, however, before it was put to the vote, ascended the rostrum.
1823. New Monthly Mag., IX. 244/1. He implored the House not to let the question go to the vote.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 58. He must then put it to the Vote whether the meeting ‘approve’ and ‘confirm’ the minutes.
1888. [see PUT v.1 22 b].
c. The collective support of a special number or class of persons in a deliberative decision, election, etc. (Cf. 7 c.)
1851. Gallenga, Italy, 391. We must not, indeed, allow that it was the result of the Lombard vote that turned Sardinia’s allies into enemies.
1884. Nation (N. Y.), 3 July, 1/3. Mr. Blaine will get the following ‘votes.’ The Hebrew vote, because he spoke severely about the persecution of the Jews by Russia; the Dynamite vote, because he is down on the English.
7. The right or privilege of exercising the suffrage; esp. in the phrase to have a vote.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Cherry & Slae, 683 (Laing MS.). Thay say þat wayage neuir luckis, quhair ilk ane hes ane woit.
1624. in Eng. Hist. Rev., Jan. (1913), 130. It is to be carryed by most voyces, because every Councillor hath equall vote there.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 109. If every man of England has not a like vote and power in electing Members for the House of Commons, then cannot the House of Commons be the Representative of the Nation.
1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 5. Who has sufficient to drive a Trade that will bear an Imposition of Eight Crowns, has as good a Vote as he that Trades for an Hundred Thousand.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 165. Every member of the community … should have a vote in electing those delegates.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. x. 229. The common people ceased to have votes.
1829. Macaulay, Mill on Govt., in Edin. Rev., March, 177. On these grounds Mr. Mill recommends that all males of mature age, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, shall have votes.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 379. Each tribe, however feeble, had two votes in the deliberation of the congress.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, xi. He … was already a forty-shilling freeholder, and was conscious of a vote for the county.
b. A person regarded merely as an embodiment of the right to vote; also, a person possessing the right to vote; a voter.
1737. Pope, Hor. Ep., II. ii. 197. That from a Patriot of distinguish’d note, Have bled and purg’d me to a simple Vote.
a. 1800[?]. Devonshire’s Noble Duel, ii. in Child, Ballads, VII. 114/2. Then away to the Parliament these votes all went again, And there they acted like just and honest men.
1806. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Tristia, Wks. 1812, V. 298. Oh! had I been a vote, a borough vote, Then Fortune would have squeezed me by thy hand. Ibid., 299. To enter the votes’ houses up and down.
1852. R. S. Hawker, in C. E. Byles, Life, xiii. (1905), 220. I am not a vote, but a Man. The reverse is the general fact. People are not Men but votes.
c. The aggregate of voters, esp. of a certain class. (Cf. 6 c.)
1888. Daily Chron., 26 April (Cassell’s). Alluding to the large amount of the illiterate vote in Ireland.
8. A resolution or decision passed by, or carried in, an assembly as the result of voting; an expression of opinion formally adopted by a meeting of any kind.
1641. Jrnls. Ho. Comm., II. 230/2. Resolved … That these Votes shall be printed; and attested under the Clerk’s Hand.
1648. Hamilton Papers (Camden), 192. The distempers of the Houses (to see their former votes eluded and Presb[yterians] lately excluded now so numerous to carie all votes with a high hand) will grow suddenly to a great fire.
1682. A. Mudie, Pres. St. Scotl., ii. 26. The Prerogatives of the Crown are great, as Power of … giving the Votes of Parliament, the Authority of Laws.
1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 2, ¶ 7. That’s the Gentleman who gained the first Vote [in the Senate] against Hannibal.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1738, IV. 62. Several smart Votes were printed.
1809. Med. Jrnl., XXI. 170. Pursuant to a Vote of the House of Commons, passed in the last Session.
1855. in W. G. Blaikie, Livingstone, ix. (1881), 185. I need not say that the award was made by an unanimous and cordial vote.
1874. Green, Short Hist., ix. § 9. 700. Marlborough was … charged with peculation, and condemned as guilty by a vote of the House of Commons.
b. Const. of.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xiii. Then a vote of thanks was moved to the mayor for his able conduct in the chair.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. vi. 44. Subsequently in the session a further vote of public money has been required.
1881. Sat. Rev., 30 July, 125/1. A majority, if it is good for anything, may be relied upon to reject a vote of censure.
† 9. A declaration or statement of opinion. Obs.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 206. [China] is by common vote, reputed the greatest Empire in the Orient.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 228. The Vote of the Proverb, for a handsome Woman, would have her English to the Neck, French to the Waste, and Dutch below.
a. 1680. Glanvill, Sadducismus, I. App. (1681), 179. That a thing should be, and yet not be anywhere in the whole Universe, is so wild and mad a vote … that it cannot be said by any man in his wits.
† b. Reckoning, estimate. Obs.
1639. G. Daniel, Ecclus. The End 30. I blush to see our great Siracides ffall to the Vote of a low Paraphrase.
10. attrib. and Comb., as vote-catching, -convicted adjs., vote-monger; Vote Office, the office from which Parliamentary bills and papers are issued to members of the House of Commons; vote-recorder, a mechanical contrivance for registering votes.
Also in recent use vote-begging, -catcher, -getter, -seeker, -splitter, -winner, etc.
1643. Sir J. Spelman, Case of Affairs, 28. Making them Vote-convicted State Heretickes.
1804. Lancaster (PA) Jrnl., 5 Oct., 2/2. The rump parliament are about to appoint vote-catchers, who are to visit the people in the suburbs and hand them tickets ready cut and dry.
1844. May, Treat. Parl., xx. 312. The Vote-office is charged with the delivery of printed papers to members of the house.
1852. Disraeli, Ld. G. Bentinck, viii. (1872), 103. The interview by appointment took place in the Vote Office.
1859. Standard, 7 May, 2/5. This is the battle which the non-voters and the vote-splitters have helped the Liberal party to win.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2715/1. Vote-recorder.
1887. Huxley, in Darwin’s Life & Lett. (1887), II. 195. In the form of a vote-catching resolution.
1887. Amer. Missionary, July, 195. Made tools of … by corrupt vote-mongers.
1890. Pall Mall G., 5 Feb., 6/1. To expedite business by an electrical vote recorder.
