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single out

English

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WOTD – 11 November 2023

Etymology

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From single (“(archaic) to take alone, or one by one”) + out.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To select (someone or something) from a group and highlight them or treat them differently.
    Synonyms: mark out, pick out
    Eddie singled out his favorite marble from the bag.
    Yvonne always wondered why Ernest had singled her out of the group of giggling girls she hung around with.
    • 1630, Ios. Exon. [i.e., Joseph Hall of Exeter], “Upon the Sight of a Lilly”, in R[obert] H[all], editor, Occasionall Meditations, London: […] [Benjamin Alsop and T. Fawcet?] for Nath[aniel] Butter, →OCLC, page 170:
      This muſt needs bee a goodly Flovver that our Saviour hath ſingled out to compare vvith Salomon, and that not in his ordinary dreſſe, but in all his royalty.
    • 1662 September 18 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “September 8th, 1662”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume II, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 333:
      […] Sir W. Pen coming out of the payhouse did single me out to tell me Sir J. Minnes' dislike of my blinding his lights over the stairs (which indeed is very bad) and blocking up the house of office on the leads.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Pastoral. Or, Pollio.”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 19, lines 73–74:
      Begin, auſpicious Boy, to caſt about / Thy Infant Eyes, and vvith a ſmile, thy Mother ſingle out; […]
    • 1710 January 25 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Joseph Addison], “Saturday, January 14, 1709–10”, in The Tatler, number 120; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume II, London: I. Walker and Co.;  […], 1822, →OCLC, page 235:
      We had not been long here, before every man singled out some woman, to whom he offered his addresses, and professed himself a lover; […]
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1711 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “MONDAY, March 19, 1710–1711”, in The Spectator, number 17; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 163:
      This paper, my reader will find was intended for an answer to a multitude of correspondents; but I hope he will pardon me if I single out one of them in particular, who has made me so very humble a request, that I cannot forbear complying with it.
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1726, [Daniel Defoe], “Of God’s Calling a Church out of the Midst of a Degenerate World, and of Satan’s New Measures upon that Incident: How he Attack’d Them Immediately, and His Success in Those Attacks”, in The Political History of the Devil, as well Ancient as Modern: […], London: […] T. Warner, […], →OCLC, part I, page 175:
      […] Satan ſavv evidently God had ſingled them out [people] in a miraculous Manner to favour them, and call them his ovvn; […]
    • 1782, [Frances Burney], “A Rout”, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume III, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book V, page 8:
      [H]aving ſingled her out, he vvas regarding her vvith a facetious ſmirk, vvhich, vvhen it caught her eye, vvas converted into a familiar nod.
    • 1858 May, Mr. Hope, “Thrashing Machines”, in The Farmer’s Magazine, volume XIII (Third Series; Old Series, volume XLVIII), number 5, London: Rogerson and Tuxford, […], →OCLC, page 427, column 1:
      In describing these improvements, I have no intention of singling out particular firms as being superior to others; in fact, I know too little of the construction that distinguishes the machines of many eminent makers, to be able to draw comparisons.
    • 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Mr. Brooke Burgess”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 248:
      [T]o you, of course, being her near relative, and the one she has singled out as the recipient of her kindness, it might have been cause for some discontent.
    • 1872, William Black, “Tweed Side”, in The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 285:
      Bell seemed a little disappointed that America and not Germany had been singled out by the poet; but of course nations don't choose allies merely to please a girl who happens to have engaged herself to marry a Prussian officer.
    • 1915 April 16, Austen Chamberlain, “Rt. Hon. Austen Chamberlain: Speech Delivered in the Birmingham Town Hall, April 16, 1915, on His Election to the Presidency of the Liberal Unionist Association in Succession to His Father, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain”, in Great Speeches of the War, London; Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: Hazell, Watson & Viney, published 1915, →OCLC, page 223:
      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.
    • 1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN, part III, page 208:
      He singled out aspects of Quality such as unity, vividness, authority, economy, sensitivity, clarity, emphasis, flow, suspense, brilliance, precision, proportion, depth and so on; kept each of these as poorly defined as Quality itself, but demonstrated them by the same class reading techniques.
    • 2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record‎[1], Glasgow: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-12-05:
      This time it was Celtic who were forced to hit on the break and when they did, they singled out [Kirk] Broadfoot.
    • 2014, Sydney Afriat, “Principles of Choice and Preference”, in The Index Number Problem: Construction Theorems, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Construction Theorems), page 93:
      With any act of an agent there are other possibilities, which might have been performed instead. […] But for other possibilities there is an unaccounted freedom, and there arises the question of the cause of the act, the motive or objective, which singles it out from among the other possible acts.
    • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real rail wrecker?”, in Rail, number 978, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 53:
      It also singled out ten routes (all closed except Leeds-Bradford/Ilkley) to show how costs outstripped earnings, without mention of what through-journey revenue they generated for the main lines to which they were connected.

Translations

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