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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Selectman

Selectman \Se*lect"man\, n.; pl. Selectmen. One of a board of town officers chosen annually in the New England States to transact the general public business of the town, and have a kind of executive authority. The number is usually from three to seven in each town.

The system of delegated town action was then, perhaps, the same which was defined in an ``order made in 1635 by the inhabitants of Charlestown at a full meeting for the government of the town, by selectmen;'' the name presently extended throughout New England to municipal governors.
--Palfrey.

Wiktionary
selectman

n. (context US English) any of a board of municipal officers elected to manage some New England towns

WordNet
selectman

n. an elected member of a board of officials who run New England towns

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "selectman".

They were Huguenots from Caude, and had encountered much opposition before the Providence selectmen allowed them to settle in the town.

Steptoes clambered onto the pier and grabbed hold of Tex and the selectmen.

The Towne School Budget had gone missing for a week once, in 1962, and the teachers had chipped in and bought Rollie French who was Head of Selectmen then a millefleurs paperweight.

Susanna Adams flew into a rage over the fact that Deacon John, in answer to his own conscience and feelings of responsibility as selectman, had brought a destitute young woman to live in the crowded household, the town having no means to provide for her.

In 1766, like his father before him, Adams was elected selectman in Braintree.

Economic values and moral virtues, as expressed in productivity of fields, mines, factories, church attendance, and obedience to the selectmen, are so easy of assessment that it is difficult to get just appraisement for those who endured everything, not for their own freedom or gain but for others' glory, and accomplished so little that could be measured in the terms of substantial, visible, tangible, economic, or ecclesiastical progress.

Worse still, he's convinced the Board of Selectmen that the new garage is a bad idea.

He could not understand how the Board of Selectmen could be so shortsighted.

He had wangled a space heater out of that skinflint board of selectmen three years ago, and had given up his apartment in town for good.

Sure hope the owner cleared that sign with the Board of Selectmen before he put it in.

Forty minutes later, feeling better although still sleepy, and after a rewarding chat with Xia over coffee and jelly doughnuts, I presented myself at the office of the Honorable Jefferson Mao, Moderator of the Council of Selectmen of the Sovereign City of Hong Kong Luna-so it said on the door.

There would be Hiram Higgins, postmaster and town constable, Walt Perkins, hotel man and town moderator, Lem Hodges, selectman, assessor and overseer of the poor, Nathan Elmes, likewise selectman, assessor and overseer of the poor, and Cale Rodgers, school committee- man and proprietor of the general store.

Higgins' eyes--and into the eyes of the selectmen, the overseers of the poor, the general-store proprietor, and the school committee.

I had hoped that you would go along, once you knew how I and the selectmen felt.

Say that I wanted to close the beaches and warn people, but the selectmen disagreed.