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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Single

Sin'gle, a.

adjective

(sing'gl, 82), a. [Lat. singulus.] 1. One only, as distinguished from many, or the whole; consisting of one alone; individual; separate; as, a single star; a single city; a single act. No single man is born with a right of controlling the opinions of all the rest. Pope. 2. Alone; having no companion. Who single hast maintained, Against revolted multitudes, the cause of truth. Milton. 3. Hence, unmarried; as, a single man; a single woman. Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. Shak. Single chose to live, and shunned to wed. Dryden.

  1. Not twisted or combined with others; not complicated; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope.
  2. Performed by one person, or one on each side; as, a single combat.

These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, . . . Who now defies thee thrice to single fight, As a petty enterprise of small enforce. Milton. 6. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed. Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound. Watts. 7. Hence, unprejudiced; unbiased; sincere. I speak it with a single heart. Shak. 8. Small; weak; silly. [Obs.] “My single state of man.” Shak. Single ale, beer, or drink, small ale, &c., as contrasted with double ale, &c., which is stronger. Nares.—Single bill, a written engagement, generally under seal, for the payment of money, without a penalty. Burrill.—Single entry. (Book-keeping.) See BOOK-KEEPING.

Sĭn'gle, v. t.

verbtransitive

(sĭng'gl), v. t. [imp. & p. p. SINGLED; p. pr. & vb. n. SINGLING.] 1. To select, as an individual person or thing, from among a number; to choose out from others; to separate. “A dog who can single out his master in the dark.” Bacon. His blood! she faintly screamed, her mind Still singling one from all mankind. T. Moore.

  1. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire. [Obs.] “An agent singling itself from consorts.” Hooker.
  2. To take alone, or one by one. “Men . . . commendable when they are singled.” Hooker.

Sin'gle, v. i.

verbintransitive

To take a gait between a pace and trot;—said of a horse.

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. W. S. Clarke.