bachelor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An unmarried man.
2. n. A person who has completed the undergraduate curriculum of a college or university and holds a bachelor's degree.
3. n. A male animal that does not mate during the breeding season, especially a young male fur seal kept from the breeding territory by older males.
4. n. A young knight in the service of another knight in feudal times.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Formerly, a person in the first or probationary stage of knighthood; a knight not powerful enough to display his banner in the field, and who therefore followed the banner of another; a knight of low rank. See knight bachelor, under knight.
2. n. In universities and colleges: Before the fifteenth century, a young man in apprenticeship for the degree of master in one of the higher faculties, that is, of theology, law, or medicine. In modern use, a person who has taken the first degree (baccalaureate) in the liberal arts and sciences, or in divinity, law, medicine, etc., at a college or university: as, a bachelor of arts; a bachelor of science. See baccalaureate. Originally, a bachelor had not necessarily taken any degree whatever; but after the fourteenth century the word, without ceasing to carry this signification, was also applied to a determinant, or young man who had taken the lowest degree in the faculty of arts. This degree seems to have been conferred not by the chancellor nor by the faculty, but only by the “nation.” It was not accompanied by any regular diploma, but testimonial letters were furnished if desired. In order to be admitted to the degree, it was requisite for the candidate to be fourteen years of age, to have followed a three years' course in logic in the university, and also to sustain a disputation, called the determinance. There were in the middle ages three orders of bachelors of theology. The lower order consisted of the ordinary biblics and cursors, the duty of the former being to read and expound the Bible from beginning to end, and that of the latter to give one course of lectures upon a book of the Old and another upon a book of the New Testament, which books they chose at pleasure. Bachelors of the second order of theology were called sententiary bachelors, because they publicly read and expounded the Book of the Sentences of Peter the Lombard. It was not, however, till late in the thirteenth century that any bachelor was permitted to lecture on the Sentences. According to the law, the lectures of the sententiary bachelors had to include the reading of the text of the author, and the explanation of it phrase by phrase; and they were forbidden to trench upon questions of logic and metaphysics. They also made certain acts called principia. See principium. As soon as the sententiary had completely finished the exposition of the Sentences, he became a formed bachelor (baccalarius formatus), and had still to continue his theological studies for three years longer before he could be licensed to preach and to teach as a master.
3. n. A man of any age who has not been married.
4. n. A woman who has not been married.
5. n. In London livery companies, a person not yet admitted to the livery. A local name in the United States of a fish, Pomoxis annularis, of the Mississippi valley; a crappie.
6. n. Sometimes incorrectly spelled batchelor.
7. n. One of the young male furseals which are forced, through fear of the adult bulls, to herd by themselves at a distance from the breeding-grounds.

Wiktionary

1. n. A man who is socially regarded as able to marry, but has not yet.
2. n. The first or lowest academical degree conferred by universities and colleges; a bachelor's degree.
3. n. Someone who has achieved a bachelor's degree.
4. n. Canada An apartment consisting mainly of one large room which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. A bachelor apartment.
5. n. obsolete An unmarried woman.
6. n. obsolete A knight who had no standard of his own, but fought under the standard of another in the field.
7. n. obsolete Among London tradesmen, a junior member not yet admitted to wear the livery.
8. n. A kind of bass, an edible freshwater fish (Pomoxys annularis) of the southern United States.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A man of any age who has not been married.
2. n. obsolete An unmarried woman.
3. n. A person who has taken the first or lowest degree in the liberal arts, or in some branch of science, at a college or university.
4. n. A knight who had no standard of his own, but fought under the standard of another in the field; often, a young knight.
5. n. obsolete In the companies of London tradesmen, one not yet admitted to wear the livery; a junior member.
6. n. (Zoöl.) A kind of bass, an edible fresh-water fish (Pomoxys annularis) of the southern United States.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a knight of the lowest order; could display only a pennon
2. n. a man who has never been married
3. v. lead a bachelor's existence