Sin"gle , n.
1. A unit; one; as, to score a single.
2. pl.
The reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them
firmness.
3. A handful of
gleaned grain. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]
4. (Law Tennis) A game with but one player on each side; -- usually in the plural.
5. (Baseball) A hit by a batter which enables him to reach
first base only.
Sin"gle , v. i. To take the irrregular gait called single-foot;- said of
a horse. See
Single- foot.
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. Clark.
Sin"gle , 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.
Dogs who hereby can single out their master in the
dark.
Bacon. His
blood! she faintly screamed her mind
Still singling one from all
mankind.
More. 2. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire. [Obs.]
An agent
singling itself from
consorts.
Hooker.
3. To take alone, or one by one.
Men .
. . commendable when they are
singled.
Hooker.
Sin"gle (?), a. [L. singulus, a dim. from the
root in simplex simple; cf. OE. & OF.
sengle, fr. L. singulus. See Simple, and cf. Singular.]
1. One only, as distinguished from more than one; consisting of one alone; individual; separate; as, a single star.
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 or woman.
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
Shak.
Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.
Dryden. 4. Not
doubled, twisted together, or combined with others; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope.
5. Performed by one person, or one on each side; as, a single combat.
These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, . . .
Who now defles thee thrice ti single fight.
Milton.
6. Uncompounded; pure;
unmixed.
Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound.
I.
Watts. 7. Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere.
I speak it with a single heart.
Shak. 8. Simple;
not wise; weak; silly. [Obs.]
He utters such
single matter in so infantly a voice.
Beau. &
Fl. Single ale, beer, or drink, small ale, etc., as contrasted with double ale, etc., which is stronger. [Obs.]
Nares. -- Single
bill (Law), a written engagement, generally
under seal, for the payment of money, without a penalty. Burril. --
Single court (Lawn Tennis), a court laid
out for only two players. -- Single-cut file. See the Note under 4th File. --
Single entry. See under Bookkeeping. -- Single file. See under 1st File. -- Single flower (Bot.), a flower with
but one set
of petals, as a
wild rose. -- Single knot. See Illust. under Knot. -- Single whip (Naut.), a single rope running through a fixed block.
Hear it pronounced