by preference

基本解释

We dress simply by preference.
我们仅凭个人偏好选择穿着。
They selected 10 CDs they would like to own and ranked them by preference.
他们可以选择 10 张想买的 CD，并按喜好排序。
This man had the air of a person who is seeking lodgings, and he seemed to halt, by preference, at the most modest houses on that dilapidated border of the faubourg Saint-Marceau.
那个人好象是在寻一个住处，并且喜欢在圣马尔索郊区贫苦的边缘地带的那些最朴素的房屋面前停下来观望。

And by nihilism, I mean the view that every preference, however squalid, base or sordid, must be regarded as the legitimate equal of every other.
我所谓的虚无主义,意指所有偏好，无论如何卑鄙，拙劣，或下贱都必需被视为,与所有其它同等合法。
耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选
So a number of you, even if the price was just a tiny bit different might have a preference for one rather than the other, so without getting in trouble by putting the camera on you, how many of you would have a preference, if the prices were essentially the same how many of you would have a strict preference for Pepsi?
那么你们中的很多人,尽管价格只有一点点不同,也许还是倾向于其中一个产品,不让你们上镜头而招来麻烦,你们谁会有倾向,如果价格差不多,谁会倾向选择百事可乐
耶鲁公开课 - 博弈论课程节选

There was no food in the apartment, and one theory is that Firestone starved, though no autopsy was conducted, by preference of her Orthodox Jewish family.
NEWYORKER: Death of a Revolutionary
Mr Cameron, over the shrieks of most of his party, has promised a referendum on introducing an alternative-vote (AV) system allowing voters to rank candidates by preference.
ECONOMIST: British politics