Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Chiefly British A man's jersey undershirt.
  • noun Physics A multiplet with a single member.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An unlined waistcoat: opposed to a doublet, which is lined.
  • noun An undershirt or undervest.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Prov. Eng. An unlined or undyed waistcoat; a single garment; -- opposed to doublet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, Australia, New Zealand A vest; a sleeveless garment with a low-cut neck, often worn underneath a shirt.
  • noun physics A multiplet having a single member, especially a single spectroscopic peak.
  • noun physics, quantum mechanics A quantum state having zero spin.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a collarless men's undergarment for the upper part of the body

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Trust me … the singlet is the least of your worries.

    Think Progress » Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mullen: ‘It is my personal belief’ that repealing DADT is ‘the right thing to do.’ 2010

  • Should he be an elderly Scotsman whose sole claim to fame is that, forty years ago, he used to run around the track in singlet and shorts while being chased by Jeffrey Archer?

    Lord Bonkers' Diary 2006

  • His chest muscles stood out through his thin singlet and his kilt was the size of a barrel.

    Mrs. Miniver 1939

  • A pair of wrestling shoes costs $15, protective headgear is $10, and another $50 provides warm-ups and a wrestling uniform called a singlet.

    Wrestling, Sport for Our Times James Freeman 2011

  • Consider a pair of electrons S1, S2 at time t when they are in a so-called singlet state, represented by the vector

    Measurement in Quantum Theory Krips, Henry 2007

  • I was wearing this skimpy little thing called a singlet — it's that old-fashioned-looking, one-piece-bathing-suit thing that wrestlers and weight lifters wear.

    The Hotel New Hampshire Irving, John, 1942- 1981

  • There are many things that women here do that put me to shame as a stay-at-home mom who thinks taking care of a singlet is a lot of work.

    TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010

  • Researchers from Imperial College London said the images reveal the physical changes that occur inside cancer cells while they are dying as a result of Photodynamic Therapy -- a cancer treatment that uses light to activate a drug that creates a short-lived toxic type of oxygen, called singlet oxygen, which kills cancerous cells.

    Latest News - UPI.com 2009

  • Photodynamic therapy consists of introducing photocatalysts into tumour cells in such a way that when radiation (in the form of light) is applied, the photocatalysts destroy these cells as a result of the production of a reactive agent known as singlet oxygen.

    THE MEDICAL NEWS 2009

  • Photodynamic therapy consists of introducing photocatalysts into tumour cells in such a way that when radiation (in the form of light) is applied, the photocatalysts destroy these cells as a result of the production of a reactive agent known as singlet oxygen.

    Health News from Medical News Today 2009

Comments

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  • Yikes, I didn't realise this was an Australianism. I just embarrassed myself by using it airily on frogapplause, to which the response was:

    judyparkaPro says:

    "What’s a singlet? (It sounds like a single Chiclet)."

    - comment, 13 April 2009.

    April 14, 2009

  • I hope you explained to her that it was a poor man's doublet. It's definitely not a sniglet.

    Hmmm. Book idea. Pets with Tourette's in doublets. In a hilarious wrinkle, they could be spouting Elizabethan curses. I can see the daily desk calendar now.

    Come over here, Boris, sweetie. Daddy just wants to try something out.

    April 14, 2009

  • It does sound like a single Chiclet, though.

    April 14, 2009