SIN'GLE, a.

1. Separate; one; only; individual; consisting of one only; as, a single star; a single city; a single act.
2. Particular; individual. No single man is born with a right of controlling the opinions of all the rest. – Pope.
3. Uncompounded. Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound. – Watts.
4. Alone; having no companion or assistant. Who single hast maintain'd / Against revolted multitudes the cause of truth. – Milton.
5. Unmarried; as, a single man; a single woman.
6. Not double; not complicated; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope.
7. Performed with one person or antagonist on a side, or with one person only opposed to another; as, a single fight; a single combat.
8. Pure; simple; incorrupt; unbiased; having clear vision of divine truth. – Matth. vi.
9. Small; weak; silly. [Obs.] – Beaum. Shak.
10. In botany, a single flower is when there is only one on a stem, and in common usage, one not double. – Martyn.

1. To select, as an individual person or thing from among a number; to choose one from others. A dog who can single out his master in the dark. – Bacon.
2. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire; as, an agent singling itself from comforts. [Not used.] – Hooker.
3. To take alone; as, men commendable when singled from society. [Not in use.] – Hooker.
4. To separate. – Sidney.

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. 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.

3. 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.

4. A unit; one; as, to score a single.
5. Alone; having no companion.
   
   

   Who single hast maintained,
   Against revolted multitudes, the cause
   Of truth. Milton.

6. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   An agent singling itself from consorts. Hooker.

7. The reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
8. 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.

9. To take alone, or one by one.
   
   

   Men . . . commendable when they are singled. Hooker.

10. A handful of gleaned grain.
    
    
    [Prov. Eng. *** Scot.]
11. Not doubled, twisted together, or combined with others; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope.
12. A game with but one player on each side] -- usually in the plural.
13. 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.

14. A hit by a batter which enables him to reach first base only.
15. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
    
    

    Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound. I. Watts.

16. Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere.
    
    

    I speak it with a single heart. Shak.

17. 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.