Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not accompanied by another or others; solitary.
- adjective Consisting of one part, aspect, or section.
- adjective Having the same application for all; uniform.
- adjective Consisting of one in number.
- adjective Not divided; unbroken.
- adjective Separate from others; individual and distinct.
- adjective Having individual opponents; involving two individuals only.
- adjective Honest; undisguised.
- adjective Wholly attentive.
- adjective Designed to accommodate one person or thing.
- adjective Not married or involved in a romantic relationship.
- adjective Relating to a state of being unmarried or uninvolved in a romantic relationship.
- adjective Botany Having only one rank or row of petals.
- noun One that is separate and individual.
- noun Something capable of carrying, moving, or holding one person or thing at a time, as a bed or a hotel room.
- noun A person who is not married or involved in a romantic relationship.
- noun Such persons considered as a group.
- noun A one-dollar bill.
- noun A phonograph record, especially a forty-five, having one song on each side.
- noun A song on one of these sides.
- noun A song, often from a full-length album or compact disc, that is released for airplay.
- noun Baseball A hit enabling the batter to reach first base.
- noun A hit for one run in cricket.
- noun A golf match between two players.
- noun A tennis or badminton match between two players.
- noun A competition in which individuals compete against each other, as in rowing or figure skating.
- intransitive verb To cause (a base runner) to score or advance by hitting a single.
- intransitive verb To cause the scoring of (a run) by hitting a single.
- intransitive verb To hit a single.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make single, separate, or alone; retire; sequester.
- To select individually from among a number; choose out separately from others: commonly followed by out.
- To lead aside or apart from others.
- Nautical, to unite, so as to combine several parts into one: as, to
single the tacks and sheets. - To separate; go apart from others: said specifically of a hunted deer when it leaves the herd.
- Same as
single-foot . - noun In whist, the score made by the winners when the game is 5 points up and rubbers are played, if the losers of any game are 3 or 4 up: as, ‘single, double, and the rub.’
- noun In the extraction of antimony from its native sulphid, the manufacturers' name for the first crude product from melting the ore with scrap-iron. It generally contains about 91.5 per cent. antimony, 7 per cent. iron, and 1 per cent. sulphur.
- noun In golf, two players playing against each other.
- noun In furniture, silverware, and the like, a separate piece not belonging to a set.
- noun One strand of sliver, roving thread, or yarn.
- noun plural A commercial name in England for thin sheet-steel or -iron used as a foundation for tin-plate, having a thickness ranging from 0.238 to 0.35 of an inch, or from No. 4 to No. 20 B. W. G.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word single.
Examples
-
The glories of the 'single transferable vote' yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'The glories of the \'single transferable vote\' '; yahooBuzzArticleSummary =' Article: The Iowa Democratic Party caucuses achieve the ideal form of representative democracy: They are probably the most influential example in American politics of a voting method called the "single transferable vote."'
-
CRAPSEY: "Now, I say this is the great law of religious variation, that in almost every instance, indeed, I think, in every single instance in history, all such movements begin with a _single_ personality."
-
"We should not waste a single item, a single dollar, just to wait in a warehouse."
-
I. iii.140 (415,7) single state of man] The _single state of man_ seems to be used by Shakespeare for an _individual_, in opposition to a
-
David Stringfellow, senior economist in the governor's office of planning and budget prefers the term "single rate" because Utah grants credits that change tax liabilities.
-
In the final version, the phrase "single point of failure" disappeared.
-
It is being opposed by the Congressional leadership to the point that advocates at one committee hearing were ejected and arrested for even mentioning the term single-payer.
Health Care Reform Sell-Out: Why Obama and the Democrats are Either Shysters or Idiots
-
The land question should have a distinct recognition as a true reform issue, and while committal to the policy signified by the term single tax, in its entirety, should be avoided, land speculation and monopoly should be condemned as a monstrous evil, and against that evil should be directed such special taxation of land values as will check and ultimately destroy it, without too rudely disturbing existing values.
-
Held, accordingly, that the fourth section of the Act of Congress, of September 27th, 1850, granting by way of donation, lands in Oregon Territory, to every white settler or occupant, American half-breed Indians included, embraced within the term single man an unmarried woman.
-
Make Me Proud; his title single with Rihanna only half engages her strength; and the title of the Stevie Wonder duet Doing It Wrong is cruelly accurate.
lea commented on the word single
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
March 3, 2009