See Also: Single(casino)
Single(medicine)
single tax(encyclopedia)
single(dictionary)
single(2)(dictionary)
single(1)(dictionary)
SINGLE(law)
single-o(dictionary)
Single option(finance)
single 1, adjective(dictionary)

single(1) (iou)



single adjective & adverb. ME.
[Old French single, sengle, from Latin singulus, from sim- as in simplus SIMPLE adjective.]
A. adjective.
I.
pred. Unaccompanied or unaided by others; alone, solitary. ME.
Wordsworth Behold her, single in the field, yon solitary Highland lass. D. H. Lawrence She was quite single and by herself, deriving from nobody.
Individual, isolated; not one of a group. LME.
G. Greene The schoolboys had swarmed round a single able-seaman.
b. Of or pertaining to an individual person. Chiefly with possess. pronoun. L16.
Sir W. Scott By his single and unassisted talents.
Regarded separately; distinct from each other or others in a group. LME.
A. Eden Every single chocolate in the box had been nibbled.
One only; one and no more; (with neg.) even one. LME.
I. Murdoch He drank it in a single draught. M. Roberts She tries not to hear a single word he says.
Undivided, united. Formerly also, complete, absolute. L16.
Isaiah Berlin European liberalism wears the appearance of a single coherent movement.
Sole, only, one; mere. M17.
New Yorker The single biggest travel buy to anywhere, ever. D. Williams The single day of the week when Lucy..went up to town.
Unique, singular. Now rare. M17.
II.
Unmarried. ME.
S. Johnson They that have grown old in a single state. P. Roth A..good-looking, young Jewish lawyer (and single! a match for somebody's daughter).
Scantily or simply dressed. Only in ME.
(Of cloth etc.) of one thickness of material; (of a garment) unlined. LME-L17.
Consisting of only one part, feature, etc.; not double or multiple. LME.
b. Of a flower: having only one whorl or set of petals. Cf. DOUBLE adjective 1c. M16.
c. For the use of one person. M19.
C. Dexter Yes, they had a single room with private bath.
a. Simple; plain; without qualification or addition. LME-M18.
b. Slight, poor, trivial. LME-M17.
Honest, sincere; without duplicity or guile. arch. E16.
T. Jefferson To those whose views are single and direct.
b. adverb. Singly, alone; one by one. arch. ME.
Addison My Dear, Misfortunes never come Single. E. Weeton You say Mrs. W. had the offer of a horse. Did she, then, ride single?
Phrases: at a single heat: see HEAT noun. with a single eye arch. sincerely, honestly, guilelessly (with allus. to Luke 11:34).
Special collocations & comb.: single acrostic: see ACROSTIC noun 1. single-acting adjective acting in one way or direction; spec. (of an engine) having pressure applied to only one side of the piston. single-action adjective acting once or in one way; spec. (of a gun) needing to be cocked by hand before it can be fired. single beer arch. = small beer s.v. BEER noun1 1. single BLESSEDNESS. single-blind adjective & noun (designating) a test etc. in which information that may lead to biased results is concealed from either tester or subject. single bond Chemistry a covalent bond in which one pair of electrons is shared between two atoms. single-breasted adjective (of a jacket etc.) having only one set of buttons and buttonholes, not overlapping at the front. single carriageway a road intended for vehicular traffic with only one lane in each direction and no dividing strip between traffic in opposite directions. single-cell protein: derived from a culture of single-celled organisms. single combat: see COMBAT noun 1. single-copy Biochemistry (of a gene or genetic sequence) present in a genome in only one copy. single cream thin cream with a relatively low fat-content. single currency a currency used by all the members of an economic federation; spec. = single European currency below; single cut adjective (of a file) with grooves cut in one direction only. single-decker noun & adjective (designating) a thing, esp. a bus, with one deck or layer. single digging (in gardening) digging in which only the topsoil is turned over, to the depth of one spit. single-electrode Chemistry an electrode or half-cell considered in isolation (usu. attrib.). single-ended adjective (Electronics) (of a device) designed for use with unbalanced signals and therefore having one input and one output terminal connected to earth. single entry a method of bookkeeping in which each transaction is entered in one account only. single European currency the currency (the euro) which replaced the national currencies of twelve member states of the EU in 2002. single European market a single market between countries of the EU. single-eyed adjective (arch.) (a) one-eyed; (b) fig. sincere, honest, straightforward. single file noun & adverb (a) noun a line of people or things arranged one behind another; (b) adverb in a single file. single-file verb intrans. move in a single file. single-foot noun & verb (US) (a) noun a horse's fast walking pace with one foot on the ground at a time; (b) verb intrans. (of a horse) go at this pace. single Gloucester (cheese) a cheese of the same composition but smaller than double Gloucester (see DOUBLE adjective). Single Grave Archaeology (designating) a culture characterized by individual burial, stone battle-axes, and corded-ware pottery, appearing in N Germany and Scandinavia in the later neolithic period. single-hand adjective & adverb = single-handed below. single-handed adjective & adverb (a) alone, unaided, unassisted; (b) (used or done) with one hand only. single-handedly adverb in a single-handed manner. single-hander (a) a person who sails a boat or yacht single-handed; (b) a boat etc. that can be sailed single-handed. single harness harness for a draught animal working alone. single-hearted adjective (arch.) straightforward, honest, sincere. single-horse adjective (of a vehicle) one-horse. single-lens reflex (designating) a reflex camera in which a single lens serves the film and the image in the viewfinder. single-line adjective (a) (esp. of traffic) consisting of or having only a single line; (b) allowing movement of traffic etc. in one direction at a time. single malt (whisky) (a) malt whisky unblended with any other malt. single market an association of countries between which movement of goods and currencies largely occurs without tariffs and other restrictions; spec. = single European market above. single-minded adjective (a) sincere, honest, straightforward; ingenuous; (b) having a single aim or purpose. single-mindedly adverb in a single-minded manner. single-mindedness the quality or fact of being single-minded. single parent a person bringing up a child or children without a partner. single OXER. single PNEUMONIA. single reed a wind instrument reed with one blade. single-reef verb trans. (Nautical) reduce the spread of (a sail) by one reef. single-seater a vehicle with one seat. single-soled adjective (a) (of a boot or shoe) having a single layer in the sole; (b) fig. (of a person) poor, mean, insignificant. single-source verb intrans. give a franchise to a single supplier for a particular product. single spacing: with no line left empty between successive lines, esp. in typewritten text. single standard (a) monometallism; (b) (the application of) a single set of principles etc. applied to all people or situations. single-start Engineering designating a screw-thread or worm gear that has one continuous thread along its entire length. single-step verb intrans. (Computing) run a program one step or instruction at a time, esp. for debugging. single-stick (one-handed fencing with) a basket-hilted stick of about sword's length. single-stranded adjective (Biochemistry) (of a nucleic acid) consisting of only one continuous sequence of nucleotides. single suckling noun & adjective (designating) a system of dairy farming in which each cow suckles only her own calf. single-tasking Computing the performance of operations or functions sequentially. single tax Economics a tax on land value as the sole source of public revenue. single-tax adjective (Economics) based on or advocating a single tax. single-taxer Economics an advocate of a single-tax system. single team: see TEAM noun 5a. single track (a) a single pair of railway lines or tramlines; (b) a recorded strip on magnetic tape with no other alongside it. single-track adjective (a) of or pertaining to a single-track; (b) = one-track s.v. ONE adjective, noun, & pronoun. singletree US & Austral. = swingletree (b) s.v. SWINGLE noun1. single-tuned adjective (Electronics) having one tuned circuit between two active devices. single-valued adjective (Math.) having a unique value for each value of its argument(s); that maps to one and only one point, number, etc. single-vision adjective (Ophthalmology) (of spectacles) of which each lens is a single optical element, not bifocal, etc. single-wicket Cricket a form of play with only one wicket and batsman at a time. single-wide US a single self-contained mobile home. single-wire adjective designating an electrical wiring system in which current is carried by one wire, the return being provided by the chassis or frame of the apparatus or installation or the earth.
singlehood noun the state of being single or unmarried M19.