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To inhale a larger quantity of air than usual, and immediately expel it; to make a deep single audible respiration, especially as the result or involuntary expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, or the like.

Single; not complex; not infolded or entangled; uncombined; not compounded; not blended with something else; not complicated; as, a simple substance; a simple idea; a simple sound; a simple machine; a simple problem; simple tasks.

Without partners, companions, or associates; single-handed; as, to attack another singly. At omber singly to decide their doom. Pope.

Separate or apart from others; single; distinct. [Obs.] Bacon. And God forbid that all a company Should rue a singular man's folly. Chaucer.

To make singular or single; to distinguish. [R.]

r submerge in a fluid; as, to sink a ship. [The Athenians] fell upon the wings and sank a single ship. Jowett (Thucyd.).

That which is, or may be, snapped up; something bitten off, seized, or obtained by a single quick movement; hence, a bite, morsel, or fragment; a scrap. He's a nimble fellow, And alike skilled in every liberal science, As having certain snaps of all. B. Jonson.

A single cut, as with shears or scissors; a clip. Shak.

Being or acting without another; single; individual; only. "The sole son of my queen." Shak. He, be sure . . . first and last will reign Sole king. Milton.

The state of being sole, or alone; singleness. [R.] Chesterfield.

A mammal having a single hoof on each foot, as the horses and asses; a solidungulate. [Written also solipede.] The solipeds, or firm-hoofed animals, as horses, asses, and mules, etc., -- they are, also, in mighty number. Sir T. Browne.

Having single hoofs.

A single diamond in a setting; also, sometimes, a precious stone of any kind set alone. Diamond solitaires blazing on his breast and wrists. Mrs. R. H. Davis.

Living or being by one's self; having no companion present; being without associates; single; alone; lonely. Those rare and solitary, these in flocks. Milton. Hie home unto my chamber, Where thou shalt find me, sad and solitary. Shak.

A tune, air, strain, or a whole piece, played by a single person on an instrument, or sung by a single voice.

e leaves and a three-seeded fruit. -- Spanish burton (Naut.), a purchase composed of two single blocks. A double Spanish burton has one double and two single blocks. Luce (Textbook of Seamanship). -- Spanish chalk (Min.), a kind of steatite; -- so called because obtained from Aragon in Spain. -- Spanish cress (Bot.)…

bowls. If all the pins are knocked down in one bowl it is a double spare; in two bowls, a single spare.

fficer, the terms of a contract, the description of an invention, as in a patent; also, a single article, item, or particular, an allegation of a specific act, as in a charge of official misconduct.

A body or space contained under a single surface, which in every part is equally distant from a point within called its center.

der. -- Spinning wheel, a machine for spinning yarn or thread, in which a wheel drives a single spindle, and is itself driven by the hand, or by the foot acting on a treadle.