Word.ws English Dictionary

single-hand

single-hand verb: to sail a boat unassisted, without any crew beyond oneself.

Verb

single-hand (third-person singular simple present single-hands, present participle single-handing, simple past and past participle single-handed)

  1. To sail a boat unassisted, without any crew beyond oneself.
    • I think a lot more sailors would try singlehanding if they weren't troubled by the increasing big-ship traffic.1980, Yachting, volume 147, number 6, page 46
    • So whether you are looking for a performance cruiser for Puget Sound, the perfect boat to single hand in this year's Pacific Cup or a great yacht to take the family on a circumnavigation, Marinero warrants more than a quick look.2007, Cruising World, volume 33, number 4, page 155

Forms of single-hand

third-person singular presentsingle-hands
present participlesingle-handing
past participlesingle-handed
pastsingle-handed
alternative formsinglehand

Origin of single-hand

Back-formation from single-handed.

Questions about single-hand

What does single-hand mean?
Single-hand means to sail a boat unassisted, without any crew beyond oneself.
What part of speech is single-hand?
Single-hand is a verb.
What is the past tense of single-hand?
The past tense of single-hand is single-handed.

Words near single-hand in the dictionary

  1. single-first cousin
  2. single-foot
  3. single-footed
  4. single-footing
  5. single-foots
  6. single-hand
  7. single-handed
  8. single-handedly
  9. single-handedness
  10. single-handing
  11. single-hands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: single-hand (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “single-hand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/single-hand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.