Etymology From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.
Can you give me a single reason not to leave right now?
The vase contained a single long-stemmed rose.
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The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail. It’s therefore not surprising that most cameras mimic this arrangement.2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:
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Not divided in parts.
The potatoes left the spoon and landed in a single big lump on the plate.
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Designed for the use of only one.
a single room
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Performed by one person, or one on each side.
a single combat
These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, […] / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:
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Not married, and (in modern times) not dating or without a significant other.
Forms often ask if a person is single, married, divorced, or widowed. In this context, a person who is dating someone but who has never married puts "single".
Josh put down that he was a single male on the dating website.
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To undergo such maiden pilgrimage. But earthlier happy is the rose distilled Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
Now I live a single life and I find it's another world / I'm not even the same, I'm a different girl / Yesterday I was somebody's baby / Now today I'm a woman on my own1986, Phyllis Hyman, “Living All Alone”, in Living All Alone:
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Biology, Botany, Natural sciences Having only one rank or row of petals.
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Obsolete Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
Therefore, when thyne eye is single: then is all thy boddy full off light. Butt if thyne eye be evyll: then shall all thy body be full of darknes?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke xj:
I speak it with a single heart.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
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Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
simple ideas are opposed to complex , and single ideas to compound.1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:
The most that is required is, that the passage of Scripture, selected as the foundation of the sacred oration, should, like the oration itself, be single, full, and unsuperfluous in its character.1867, William Greenough Thayer Shedd, Homiletics, and Pastoral Theology, page 166:
He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.1616–1618, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Queene of Corinth”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene i:
Etymology From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.
I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.
She looked in her purse, found a ten and a single, gave him the ten. ‘I'll spend it on booze,’ he said.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 94:
‘I want to know, Mr Stone, if, in the course of the day, you have issued any tickets to a person dressed in Arab costume?’ His reply was prompt. ‘I have — by the last train, the 7.25, — three singles.’1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
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Ball games, Football, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, SportsCanadian A score of one point, awarded when a kicked ball is dead within the non-kicking team's end zone or has exited that end zone.
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Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports, TennisIn plural A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
After tea, Mrs. Inglethorp went to lie down to rest before her efforts in the evening and I challenged Mary Cavendish to a single at tennis.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 18:
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One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences A floating-point number having half the precision of a double-precision value.
If you want to be a scientist or an engineer, learn to say “no” to singles and floats.2011, Rubin H. Landau, A First Course in Scientific Computing, page 214:
But if the same scene is shot in singles (or “over-the-shoulder” shots where one of the actors is only a lumpy shoulder in the foreground), the editor and the director can almost redirect the scene on film.1990, Jon Boorstin, The Hollywood Eye: What Makes Movies Work, page 94:
A few such examples have been preserved, as is well known, such as one of the Stirling 8-ft. singles of the late Great Northern Railway, the Great Western 4-4-0 City of Truro, ex-Caledonian single-driver No. 123, the Brighton 0-4-2 Gladstone, and others.1945 March and April, “Preserving Historic Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 64:
Etymology From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.
Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 7, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
The seeds did not germinate in many parts of a row until rains in end of June and thunderplumps in first week of July brought them up later in patches, so that no second sowing was necessary, but singling was done by stages.1916, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, page 241:
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Of a horse To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
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.1860, William S. Clark, Massachusetts Agricultural College Annual Report:
an agent singling itself from consorts[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
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Archaic To take alone, or one by one; to single out.
men […] commendable when they are singled[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
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To reduce (a railway) to single track.
In the east of Yorkshire, Mr. A. M. Ross reports the belief of local railwaymen that the N.E.R. plans to single the York-Beverley line, leaving an adequate provision of passing loops, and to operate it by C.T.C. from York; […]1959 June, “Talking of Trains: North Eastern report”, in Trains Illustrated, page 293:
The Henley branch, recently singled and fully track-circuited, is worked by acceptance lever between Twyford and Shiplake cabins.1962 October, “Talking of Trains: New signalbox at Twyford”, in Modern Railways, page 226:
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Sadly, it's not the quickest route as much of it has been singled, but it still boasts some attractive stations as well as an active Community Rail Partnership, one of the first in the country.2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in RAIL, number 918, page 48: