Single
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈsɪŋɡl/
- Rhymes: -ɪŋɡəl
Origin
From Middle English sengle, from Old French sengle, from Latin singulus a diminutive from the root in simplex ("simple"). See simple, and compare singular.
Full definition of single
Adjective
single
- Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
- 2013, Fenella Saunders, Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture, The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail. It’s therefore not surprising that most cameras mimic this arrangement.
- 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
- Performed by one person, or one on each side.a single combat
- MiltonThese shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, ...
Who now defies thee thrice to single fight. - Not married, and also not dating.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.
- ShakespeareGrows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
- DrydenSingle chose to live, and shunned to wed.
- (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
- (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XI: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?
- ShakespeareI speak it with a single heart.
- Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
- I. WattsSimple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound.
- (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
- Beaumont and FletcherHe utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Related terms
Noun
single
(plural singles)- 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 has at least one extra track.The Offspring released four singles from their most recent album.
- One who is not married.He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
- (cricket) A score of one run.
- (baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
- (dominoes) A tile that has different values (i.e., number of pips) in each end.
- A bill valued at $1.I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.
- (UK) A one-way ticket.
- (Canadian football) 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. Officially known in the rules as a rouge.
- (tennis, chiefly in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
- One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
- (UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
Verb
- To identify or select one member of a group from the others; generally used with out, either to single out or to single (something) out.Eddie singled out his favorite marble from the bag.Yvonne always wondered why Ernest had singled her out of the group of giggling girls she hung around with.
- Francis Bacondogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark
- (baseball) 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.
- (agriculture) To thin out.
- 1913, D. H. Lawrence, ,Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.
- (of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
- W. S. ClarkMany very fleet horses, when overdriven, adopt a disagreeable gait, which seems to be a cross between a pace and a trot, in which the two legs of one side are raised almost but not quite, simultaneously. Such horses are said to single, or to be single-footed.
- To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
- Hookeran agent singling itself from consorts
- To take alone, or one by one.
- Hookermen ... commendable when they are singled