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 drink".
Nik couldn't be blamed for that, any more than a girl's drunken collapse could be charged to a single drink.
He had never been the kind who could nurse a single drink through half the evening.
I left him a dollar bonus for the single drink to keep my image green.
As was their custom, when Hubbard Lawless felt the Julie settle into cruising speed, he built Harder's single drink, a tall bourbon and water, and brought it up to him.
He did not feel that the single drink was in conflict with his religious convictions.
They cannot afford more than a single drink of cassis or absinthe, over which they sit for hours in the public houses of the boulevard des Italiens, hoping to be discovered by some prince or pasha or social lion.