single
adjEtymology
From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.
Definitions
Not accompanied by anything else
Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
- Can you give me a single reason not to leave right now?
- The vase contained a single long-stemmed rose.
Not divided in parts.
- The potatoes left the spoon and landed in a single big lump on the plate.
Designed for the use of only one.
- a single room
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Performed by one person, or one on each side.
- a single combat
- These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, […] / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.
Not married, and (in modern times) not dating or without a significant other.
- Forms often ask if a person is single, married, divorced, or widowed. In this context, a person who is dating someone but who has never married puts "single".
- Josh put down that he was a single male on the dating website.
- To undergo such maiden pilgrimage. But earthlier happy is the rose distilled Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
Having only one rank or row of petals.
Simple and honest
Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
- Therefore, when thyne eye is single: then is all thy boddy full off light. Butt if thyne eye be evyll: then shall all thy body be full of darknes?
- I speak it with a single heart.
Uncompounded
Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
- simple ideas are opposed to complex , and single ideas to compound.
- The most that is required is, that the passage of Scripture, selected as the foundation of the sacred oration, should, like the oration itself, be single, full, and unsuperfluous in its character.
Simple
Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
- He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.
A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
A popular song released and sold (on any format) nominally on its own though usually…
A popular song released and sold (on any format) nominally on its own though usually having at least one extra track.
- The Offspring released four singles from their most recent album.
One who is not married or does not have a romantic partner.
- He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
A score of one run.
- He refused to take a single as the ball was dropped by his opponent's best fielder.
A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
A tile that has a different value (i.e. number of pips) at each end.
A bill valued at $1.
- I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.
- She looked in her purse, found a ten and a single, gave him the ten. ‘I'll spend it on booze,’ he said.
A one-way ticket.
- ‘I want to know, Mr Stone, if, in the course of the day, you have issued any tickets to a person dressed in Arab costume?’ His reply was prompt. ‘I have — by the last train, the 7.25, — three singles.’
A score of one point, awarded when a kicked ball is dead within the non-kicking team's…
A score of one point, awarded when a kicked ball is dead within the non-kicking team's end zone or has exited that end zone.
A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
- After tea, Mrs. Inglethorp went to lie down to rest before her efforts in the evening and I challenged Mary Cavendish to a single at tennis.
One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
A handful of gleaned grain.
A floating-point number having half the precision of a double-precision value.
- If you want to be a scientist or an engineer, learn to say “no” to singles and floats.
A shot of only one character.
- But if the same scene is shot in singles (or “over-the-shoulder” shots where one of the actors is only a lumpy shoulder in the foreground), the editor and the director can almost redirect the scene on film.
A single cigarette.
Synonym of single-driver.
To get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base.
- Pedro singled in the bottom of the eighth inning, which, if converted to a run, would put the team back into contention.
To thin out.
- Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.
- The seeds did not germinate in many parts of a row until rains in end of June and thunderplumps in first week of July brought them up later in patches, so that no second sowing was necessary, but singling was done by stages.
To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
To sequester
To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
- an agent singling itself from consorts
To take alone, or one by one
To take alone, or one by one; to single out.
- men […] commendable when they are singled
To reduce (a railway) to single track.
- In the east of Yorkshire, Mr. A. M. Ross reports the belief of local railwaymen that the N.E.R. plans to single the York-Beverley line, leaving an adequate provision of passing loops, and to operate it by C.T.C. from York; […]
- The Henley branch, recently singled and fully track-circuited, is worked by acceptance lever between Twyford and Shiplake cabins.
- Sadly, it's not the quickest route as much of it has been singled, but it still boasts some attractive stations as well as an active Community Rail Partnership, one of the first in the country.
A surname from Old English.
The neighborhood
- neighborsingular
- neighborsingularity
- neighborsingularly
- neighborbaseball
- neighborcricket
- neighborsingle
- neighborsolo
- neighbordouble
- neighbortwofold
- neighbortriple
- neighborthreefold
- neighborquadruple
Derived
a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, are you single, at a single stroke, better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness, cheese single, digital single-lens reflex, digital single-lens reflex camera, every single, every single time, I'm single, nonsingle, permasingle, semi-single, single-acting, single action, single and ready to mingle, single angle quote, single annulus, single as a dollar bill, single as a Pringle, single bed, single-blind, single bond, single-breasted, single-cell, single-celled, single-celling, single-chain, single child, single-click, single combat, single-course, single cream, single crochet, single-crop, single cross, single crystal, single currency, single curve, single data rate · +165 more
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for single. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA