To choose an object so that you can manipulate it in some way. In graphical user interfaces, you usually need to select an object -- an icon, file, folder, and so on -- before you can do anything with it. To select an object, you move the pointer to the object and click a mouse button. In many applications, you can select blocks of text by positioning the pointer at an end-point of the block and then dragging the pointer over the block.
