singling

Verb

single (third-person singular simple present singles, present participle singling, simple past and past participle singled)

1. To get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base.
   • Pedro singled in the bottom of the eighth inning, which, if converted to a run, would put the team back into contention.
2. To thin out.
   • 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. […], →OCLC
3. To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
   • 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
4. (archaic, intransitive) To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
   • an agent singling itself from consorts[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
5. (archaic, intransitive) To take alone, or one by one; to single out.
   • men […] commendable when they are singled[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
6. (transitive) To reduce (a railway) to single track.
   • 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

See all 32 meanings of single