single

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.

adj

1. Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
   Can you give me a single reason not to leave right now?
   The vase contained a single long-stemmed rose.
   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
2. Not divided in parts.
   The potatoes left the spoon and landed in a single big lump on the plate.
3. Designed for the use of only one.
   a single room
4. Performed by one person, or one on each side.
   a single combat
5. 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.
6. (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
7. (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
8. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
   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
9. (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.

noun

1. (music) A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
2. (music) A popular song released and sold (on any format) nominally on its own though usually having at least one extra track.
   The Offspring released four singles from their most recent album.
3. One who is not married or does not have a romantic partner.
   He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
4. (cricket) A score of one run.
5. (baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
6. (dominoes) A tile that has a different value (i.e. number of pips) at each end.
7. (US, informal) A bill valued at $1.
   I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.
8. (UK) A one-way ticket.
9. (Canadian football) 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.
10. (tennis, chiefly in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
11. One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
12. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
13. (computing, programming) A floating-point number having half the precision of a double-precision value.
    Coordinate term: double
    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
14. (film) A shot of only one character.
    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
15. A single cigarette.
16. (rail transport, obsolete) Synonym of single-driver.
    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

verb

1. (baseball) To get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base.
   Pedro singled in the bottom of the eighth inning, which, if converted to a run, would put the team back into contention.
2. (agriculture) To thin out.
   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
3. (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
4. (intransitive, archaic) To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
5. (intransitive, archaic) To take alone, or one by one; to single out.
6. (transitive) 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
   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. November 18 2020, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in RAIL, number 918, page 48