different between single vs shallow

English

Etymology

From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s????l/
• Rhymes: -????l

Adjective

single (not comparable)

1. Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.

2. Not divided in parts.

3. Designed for the use of only one.

4. Performed by one person, or one on each side.
5. Not married or (in modern times) not involved in a romantic relationship without being married or not dating anyone exclusively.
6. (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
7. (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke 11:

     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?
8. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard

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

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

     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.

9. (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.

   • He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.

Synonyms

• (not accompanied by anything else): lone, sole
• (not divided in parts): unbroken, undivided, uniform
• (not married): unmarried, available

Antonyms

• (not married): divorced, married, widowed, taken
• (not single, in a relationship, but with separate households): living apart together, LAT

Derived terms

Related terms

• singular
• singularity
• singularly

Translations

Noun

single (plural singles)

1. (music) A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.

   Antonym: album

2. (music) A popular song released and sold (on any format) nominally on its own though usually having at least one extra track.

3. One who is not married or does not have a romantic partner.

   Antonym: married

4. (cricket) A score of one run.
5. (baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
6. (dominoes) A tile that has a different value (i.e. number of pips) at each end.
7. A bill valued at $1.

8. (Britain) A one-way ticket.
9. (Canadian football) A score of one point, awarded when a kicked ball is dead within the non-kicking team's end zone or has exited that end zone. Officially known in the rules as a rouge.
10. (tennis, chiefly in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
11. One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
12. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
13. (computing, programming) A floating-point number having half the precision of a double-precision value.

    Coordinate term: double

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

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

14. (film) A shot of only one character.
    • 1990, Jon Boorstin, The Hollywood Eye: What Makes Movies Work (page 94)

      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.

Derived terms

• cassingle
• lead single
• singles bar
• split single
• CD single

Translations

See also

• baseball
• cricket

Verb

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

1. To identify or select one member of a group from the others; generally used with out, either to single out or to single (something) out.
   • 1915, Austen Chamberlain, speech on April 16, 1915

     Sir John French says that if he is to single out one regiment in the fighting at Ypres it is the Worcesters he would name? I do plead that some person should record these events, so that our history, national and local, may be the richer for them, that the children may be stimulated to do their duty by the knowledge of the way in which our soldiers are doing theirs to-day.

2. (baseball) To get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base.

3. (agriculture) To thin out.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 7

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

4. (of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
   • 1860, William S. Clark, Massachusetts Agricultural College Annual Report

     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.

5. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     an agent singling itself from consorts

6. To take alone, or one by one.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     men […] commendable when they are singled

7. To reduce a railway to single track.

Derived terms

• single out

Translations

See also

References

• single in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “single”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Nigels, glinse, ingles

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /?si?.??l/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /?si?.?el/

Noun

single m (plural singles)

1. (music) single

Further reading

• “single” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “single” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “single” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation

• (music record or track): IPA^(key): /?s??.?l/, /?s??.??l/
• ((person) without romantic partner): IPA^(key): /?s??.??l/
• Hyphenation: sin?gle

Noun

single m (plural singles, diminutive singletje n)

1. A single (short music record, e.g. 45 RPM vinyl with an A side and a B side; main track of such a record).
2. A single (person without a romantic partner).

Derived terms

• debuutsingle
• hitsingle

Adjective

single (not comparable)

1. single (without a romantic partner)

Inflection

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?si?le/, [?s?i?le?]
• Rhymes: -i?le
• Syllabification: sing?le

Noun

single

1. single (45 rpm record; track nominally released on its own)

Declension

See also

• pitkäsoitto

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Noun

single m or f (invariable)

1. single, loner (person who lives alone and has no emotional ties)

Adjective

single (invariable)

1. single (unmarried, not in a relationship)

   Synonym: (formal) celibe

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• singel

Etymology

Borrowed from English single and singles.

Noun

single m (definite singular singlen, indefinite plural singler, definite plural singlene)

1. (music) a single (record or CD)
2. (sports) singles (e.g. in tennis)

Synonyms

• singelplate (record)

References

• “single” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• singel

Etymology

Borrowed from English single and singles.

Noun

single m (definite singular singlen, indefinite plural singlar, definite plural singlane)

1. (music) a single (record or CD)
2. (sports) singles (e.g. in tennis)

Synonyms

• singelplate (record)

References

• “single” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?s?.?ow/

Noun

single m (plural singles)

1. (music) single (song released on its own or with an extra track)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English single. Doublet of sendos.

Noun 1

single m (plural singles)

1. single (song released)

Noun 2

single m or f (plural singles)

1. single, single person

English

Etymology

From Middle English schalowe (“not deep, shallow”); apparently related to Middle English schalde, schold, scheld, schealde (“shallow”), from Old English s?eald (“shallow”), from Proto-Germanic *skal-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh?- (“to parch, dry out”). Related to Low German Scholl (“shallow water”). See also shoal.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??al??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æl.o?/
• Rhymes: -æl??
• Hyphenation: shal?low

Adjective

shallow (comparative shallower, superlative shallowest)

1. Having little depth; significantly less deep than wide.

   This crater is relatively shallow.

   Saute the onions in a shallow pan.

2. Extending not far downward.

   The water is shallow here.

3. Concerned mainly with superficial matters.

   It was a glamorous but shallow lifestyle.

4. Lacking interest or substance.

   The acting is good, but the characters are shallow.

5. Not intellectually deep; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing.

   shallow learning

   • The king was neither so shallow, nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the French king.

6. (obsolete) Not deep in tone.
7. (tennis) Not far forward, close to the net.

Antonyms

• deep

Derived terms

• given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow

Translations

Noun

shallow (plural shallows)

1. A shallow portion of an otherwise deep body of water.

   The ship ran aground in an unexpected shallow.

   • dashed on the shallows of the moving sand
2. A fish, the rudd.
3. (historical) A costermonger's barrow.
   • 1871, Belgravia (volume 14, page 213)

     You might have gone there quite as easily, and enjoyed yourself much more, had your mode of conveyance been the railway, or a hansom, or even a costermonger's shallow.

Usage notes

• Usually used in the plural form.

Translations

See also

• shoal
• sandbar
• sandbank

Verb

shallow (third-person singular simple present shallows, present participle shallowing, simple past and past participle shallowed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become less deep.

References

Anagrams

• hallows