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 knot".
Jack Aubrey did not in fact console himself by swimming, though he had a great mind to it after a sleepless night, trying to urge the ship on in the dying breeze by force of will, while at every other glass the log took out less and less of its line, until at last not even a single knot ran off the reel, in spite of all the help the quartermaster could give it.
He picked it up and briefly puzzled over the single knot in its length before the noise came again.
Planks four feet across and twenty yards long, and not a single knot!
Too, it is common to loop a wrist binding, and use a single knot, rather than tie each wrist separately.
Panting and gasping, Harry slowed down, skirting the willows swiping branches, peering through the darkness toward its tick trunk, trying to see the single knot in the bark of the old tree that would paralyze it.
Panting and gasping, Harry slowed down, skirting the willow's swiping branches, peering through the darkness toward its tick trunk, trying to see the single knot in the bark of the old tree that would paralyze it.
The man's long gray hair, tied in a single knot, fell to the floor as he bowed.
His skin was very dark, his hair gray and long and tied in a single knot.
I have often thought that this is the single knot that most sets my race apart from yours.