Definition of "single"

The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail. It’s therefore not surprising that most cameras mimic this arrangement.

2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist

These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, […] / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.

1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […]

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage.But earthlier happy is the rose distilledThan that which, withering on the virgin thorn,Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.

1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

Therefore, when thyne eye is single: then is all thy boddy full off light. Butt if thyne eye be evyll: then shall all thy body be full of darknes?

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Luke xj]

I speak it with a single heart.

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iii]

simple ideas are opposed to complex , and single ideas to compound.

1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726

The most that is required is, that the passage of Scripture, selected as the foundation of the sacred oration, should, like the oration itself, be single, full, and unsuperfluous in its character.

1867, William Greenough Thayer Shedd, Homiletics, and Pastoral Theology, page 166

He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.

1616–1618, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Queene of Corinth”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, Act III, scene i

She looked in her purse, found a ten and a single, gave him the ten. ‘I'll spend it on booze,’ he said.

1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, page 94

If you want to be a scientist or an engineer, learn to say “no” to singles and floats.

2011, Rubin H. Landau, A First Course in Scientific Computing, page 214

But if the same scene is shot in singles (or “over-the-shoulder” shots where one of the actors is only a lumpy shoulder in the foreground), the editor and the director can almost redirect the scene on film.

1990, Jon Boorstin, The Hollywood Eye: What Makes Movies Work, page 94

A few such examples have been preserved, as is well known, such as one of the Stirling 8-ft. singles of the late Great Northern Railway, the Great Western 4-4-0 City of Truro, ex-Caledonian single-driver No. 123, the Brighton 0-4-2 Gladstone, and others.

1945 March and April, “Preserving Historic Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 64

Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 7, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […]

The seeds did not germinate in many parts of a row until rains in end of June and thunderplumps in first week of July brought them up later in patches, so that no second sowing was necessary, but singling was done by stages.

1916, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, page 241

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.

1860, William S. Clark, Massachusetts Agricultural College Annual Report

an agent singling itself from consorts

1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, (please specify the page)

men […] commendable when they are singled

1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, (please specify the page)

In the east of Yorkshire, Mr. A. M. Ross reports the belief of local railwaymen that the N.E.R. plans to single the York-Beverley line, leaving an adequate provision of passing loops, and to operate it by C.T.C. from York; […]

1959 June, “Talking of Trains: North Eastern report”, in Trains Illustrated, page 293

The Henley branch, recently singled and fully track-circuited, is worked by acceptance lever between Twyford and Shiplake cabins.

1962 October, “Talking of Trains: New signalbox at Twyford”, in Modern Railways, page 226

Sadly, it's not the quickest route as much of it has been singled, but it still boasts some attractive stations as well as an active Community Rail Partnership, one of the first in the country.

2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in RAIL, number 918, page 48