The Collaborative International Dictionary
Single \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.]
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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. -
Alone; having no companion.
Who single hast maintained, Against revolted multitudes, the cause Of truth.
--Milton. -
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. Not doubled, twisted together, or combined with others; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope.
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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. -
Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound.
--I. Watts. -
Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere.
I speak it with a single heart.
--Shak. -
Simple; not wise; weak; silly. [Obs.]
He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.
--Beau. & Fl.Single ale, Single beer, or Single 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.
Usage examples of "single beer".
On the other hand, I am working on my fourth case of dysentery, my stomach feels like a tree is growing in it, and I am medically forbidden to touch so much as a single beer.
I am barred once again from touching even a single beer, any fried foods, spices, pepper, and just about everything else except broiled meat and mineral water.
Over at the bar Armstrong was making a single beer stretch a long way.
Considering his formidable body weight, he doesn't become inebriated on a single beer.
But there wasn't so much as a single beer bottle anywhere in the car.
And after we had toweled off and put on shirts, we went to a different bar and had but a single beer apiece.
Smith was beginning to wonder which of them might freeze to death first-Smith's coat was undoubtedly the warmer but Baxter had the advantage of several strong drinks to his single beer (for which, he reminded himself, he had been forced to leave a fifteen-cent tip for fear of losing the professor)-when Willis turned and trudged up the walk to his apartment.
A single beer bottle rolled on the floor, a few feet free of the monument, gleaming, silent, alone.