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Single   /sˈɪŋgəl/   Listen
adjective
Single  adj.  
1.
One only, as distinguished from more than one; consisting of one alone; individual; separate; as, a single star. "No single man is born with a right of controlling the opinions of all the rest."
2.
Alone; having no companion. "Who single hast maintained, Against revolted multitudes, the cause Of truth."
3.
Hence, unmarried; as, a single man or woman. "Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness." "Single chose to live, and shunned to wed."
4.
Not doubled, twisted together, or combined with others; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope.
5.
Performed by one person, or one on each side; as, a single combat. "These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant,... Who now defles thee thrice ti single fight."
6.
Uncompounded; pure; unmixed. "Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound."
7.
Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere. "I speak it with a single heart."
8.
Simple; not wise; weak; silly. (Obs.) "He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice."
Single ale, Single beer, or Single drink, small ale, etc., as contrasted with double ale, etc., which is stronger. (Obs.)
Single bill (Law), a written engagement, generally under seal, for the payment of money, without a penalty.
Single court (Lawn Tennis), a court laid out for only two players.
Single-cut file. See the Note under 4th File.
Single entry. See under Bookkeeping.
Single file. See under 1st File.
Single flower (Bot.), a flower with but one set of petals, as a wild rose.
Single whip (Naut.), a single rope running through a fixed block.


noun
Single  n.  
1.
A unit; one; as, to score a single.
2.
pl. The reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
3.
A handful of gleaned grain. (Prov. Eng. & Scot.)
4.
(Law Tennis) A game with but one player on each side; usually in the plural.
5.
(Baseball) A hit by a batter which enables him to reach first base only.


verb
Single  v. t.  (past & past part. singled; pres. part. singling)  
1.
To select, as an individual person or thing, from among a number; to choose out from others; to separate. "Dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark." "His blood! she faintly screamed her mind Still singling one from all mankind."
2.
To sequester; to withdraw; to retire. (Obs.) "An agent singling itself from consorts."
3.
To take alone, or one by one. "Men... commendable when they are singled."


Single  v. i.  To take the irrregular gait called single-foot; said of a horse. See Single-foot. "Many 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."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Single" Quotes from Famous Books



... ascending,—when, glancing down on the track, instead of solid earth, I saw the ground, through the open timbers of the trestle-bridge, at least sixty feet below me! The timber road was only the width of the single iron track; so that any one looking out of the side carriage-windows would see sixty feet down into space. The beams on which the trestle-bridge is supported, are, in some cases, rested on stone; but oftener they are not. It is not easy to describe the sensation first ...
— A Boy's Voyage Round the World • The Son of Samuel Smiles
... your lives!" shouted Tad, bolting from the tent in a single leap, followed almost instantly by Ned Rector ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Montana • Frank Gee Patchin
... game night awaits all, and the road of death must once be travelled. The Furies give up some to the sport of horrible Mars: the greedy ocean is destructive to sailors: the mingled funerals of young and old are crowded together: not a single person does the cruel Proserpine pass by. The south wind, the tempestuous attendant on the setting Orion, has sunk me also in the Illyrian waves. But do not thou, O sailor, malignantly grudge to give a portion of loose sand to my bones and unburied head. So, whatever the east wind shall ...
— The Works of Horace • Horace
... three champions stand at their post. With their feet firmly set, and their shields before them, they met the onrush of their foes, wielding their long swords with such precision and strength that Justin and five of his fellows fell dead without striking a single blow. Onward the vikings pressed, leaping over the bodies of their fallen companions, but only to be themselves driven back again under the terrible blows that met them. Very soon the roadway of the bridge was so ...
— Olaf the Glorious - A Story of the Viking Age • Robert Leighton
... that is naturally evil in respect of its genus can by no means be good and lawful, since in order for an action to be good it must be right in every respect: because good results from a complete cause, while evil results from any single defect, as Dionysius asserts (Div. Nom. iv). Now a lie is evil in respect of its genus, since it is an action bearing on undue matter. For as words are naturally signs of intellectual acts, it is unnatural ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas


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