This should work:

$('option').hide(); // hide options

It works in Firefox, but not Chrome (and probably not in IE, not tested).

A more interesting example:

<select>

    <option class=hide>Hide me</option>

    <option>visible option</option>

</select>

<script type=text/javascript>

// try to hide the first option

$('option.hide').hide();



// to select the first visible option

$('option:visible').first().attr('selected', 'selected');

</script>

Or see the example at http://jsfiddle.net/TGxUf/

Is the only option to detach the option elements from the DOM? I need to show them again later, so this would not be very effective.