Definition of "alternative"

Reason would seem to dictate that it was an alternative offer,—either to receive $15,000 if the grantor perform the condition or $12,000 if he did not perform the condition.

1911, “Phillips v. Rohrer”, in Penn State Law Review, volume 16, page 46

Who is right, Augusto or Unamuno? In general critics have seen this confrontation as offering an alternative choice: either we are free or we are predetermined.

2014, C.A. Longhurst, Unamuno's Theory of the Novel‎, Routledge, page 162

He [the Sun] it is that giveth light to all things, and riddeth them from darkneſſe : hee hideth the other ſtarres, and ſheweth them againe : he ordereth the ſeaſons in their alternative courſe : he tempereth the yeere, ariſing ever freſh and new againe, for the benefite and good of the world.

1601, Pliny the Elder, “Of the seuen Planets”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The History of the World Commonly Called the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus, translation of Naturalis Historia (in Classical Latin), page 3

‘The cloister or a betrothed husband?’ I echoed—‘Is that the alternative destined for Miss Vernon?’

1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], Rob Roy. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown

Between these alternatives there is no middle ground. The Constitution is either a superior, paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and, like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it.

1803, Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison‎