board of selectmen
1
8.9
- noun
- /bɔrd əv sɪˈlɛktmən/
- Formal
:
junta de concejales
- Stu Marckoon, an administrative assistant to the board of selectmen, said Russell Pinkham worked as a truck driver.
- chairman of the board of selectmen
Examples
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During the town hall, the board of selectmen discussed plans to improve local infrastructure.
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Here's a quote from the minutes of the Scituate board of selectmen:
Blog text (9) -
Fuller, Haland I are the entire board of selectmen in this community.
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The board of selectmen approved the new budget for the upcoming year during their meeting last night.
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As part of their duties, the board of selectmen reviews proposals for community projects every quarter.
Synonyms
∞
3.2
A group of people chosen to manage an organization
How Responsible
4
3.7
88
2.4
- Formal
1
8.9
42
2.6
∞
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'board' (a committee) + 'of' + 'selectmen' (elected town officials): it denotes a committee composed of selectmen. This follows a common 'board of X' compositional pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can understand it, despite 'selectman/selectmen' being regionally specific vocabulary.
Etymology
Board of selectmen comes from early New England towns, where people would choose a few selectmen, literally 'selected men', to form a board to run local matters, so today it means a small elected group that runs a town.