▪ I. † lone, n. Obs.—1
[? a. ON. laun (see lain v.).]
Concealment; = lain n.1
| a 1450 Le Morte Arth. 1124 The kyng than tolde wythout lone to alle hys barons..how [etc.]. |
▪ II. lone, a.
(ləʊn)
Also 7–8 loan; Sc. 4– lane, 6– lain, (9 north. dial. leane, lene).
[Aphetic f. alone. Cf. a lone written for al one in the MSS. of R. Brunne Handl. Synne 2517.]
1. a. Of persons, their condition, situation, etc.: Having no fellows or companions; without company; solitary. Chiefly poet. and rhetorical.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 20, I..laye longe in a lone dreme. 1530 Palsgr. 317/2 Lone onely, seul. 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Lone,..single or solitarie. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 337, I was not a lone man in this my afflictions, but had many fellowes that suffered the like torment. 1740 Shenstone Judgm. Hercules 335 When I have on those pathless wilds appear'd And the lone wand'rer with my presence cheer'd. 1747 Smollett Regicide ii. iv. (1777) 34 With not one friend his sorrows to divide, And chear his lone distress? 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 51 As some lone miser, visiting his store. 1814 Sporting Mag. XLIII. 261, I found myself a lone man, much at a loss. 1837 Disraeli Venetia i. vii. 33 She felt for this lone child. 1863 Woolner My Beautiful Lady 109 Dim in lowlands far Lone marsh-birds winged their misty flight. 1882 Ouida Maremma I. 248 We trusted an old lone creature. 1901 Blackw. Mag. June 785/2 Two lone Englishmen in the same house, not on speaking terms. |
b. to play, hold a lone hand: in Quadrille and Euchre, to play against all the other players, or against the opposite side without help from one's own. Hence lone hand, lone player are used = a person playing such a game.
| 1799 Mrs. J. West Tale of Times I. 217 Sir Simon..was remarkably partial to holding a lone-hand [at quadrille]. 1830 R. Hardie Hoyle made Familiar 37 [Quadrille.] When playing against a lone hand, never lead a king, unless you have the queen. 1886 Euchre: how to play it 41 Suppose a player, being four, and his adversaries nothing, plays a lone hand and makes his five tricks. Ibid. 108 Lone Hand, a hand so strong in trumps alone, or in trumps, guarded by high cards of a lay suit, that it will probably win five tricks if its holder plays alone. Lone player, the one playing without his partner. |
| fig. 1879 B. F. Taylor Summer-Savory xv. 122 In fact, in pretty nearly all his plays he had a ‘lone hand’. 1888 Kipling Barrack-Room Ballads (1892) 118 A lone-hand raid of the rearmost cart. c 1890 A. Murdoch Yoshiwara Episode, etc. 81, I wasn't playing a lone hand in that game, and so I just allowed I wouldn't marry that girl just then. 1901 Contemp. Rev. Dec. 863, I am going to play a lone-hand, and intend being my own Commandant and Veldt Cornet and everything else. 1916 Brit. Dominions Year Bk. 1917 243 Lone-hand raids on Constantinople. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 455 This is a lonehand fight. |
c. Having a feeling of loneliness; lonesome.
| a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 84 When the lone heart, in that long strife, Shall cling unconsciously to life. Ibid. 382 And there my fond mother Sits pensive and lone. 1845 Hood Last Man xxxiv, I never felt so lone. 1858 Lytton What will He do? i. xii, I'll rather stay with you, Grandy, you'll be so lone. |
2. Unmarried; single or widowed. Now only of women, with mock-pathetic reference to sense 1.
| 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xviii. 1–8, I am a poore wedowe and alone woman destitute of frendes. 1588 M. Kyffin Terence, Andria ii. iii. E ij b, This Glycerie is a lone woman. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 35, A 100. Marke is a long one, for a poore lone woman to beare. 1611 W. Sclater Key (1629) 128 That is but necessarie for a master of a familie, that is superfluous for a lone man. 1642 Title Collect. Records (T.), Queen Elizabeth being a lone woman, and having few friends, refusing to marry. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Lone-woman, a woman unmarried or without a male protector. 1847 Halliwell s.v., Lone-man, a man living unmarried by himself. 1859 Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. I. i. 55 Men highly-placed little know..what a trouble it is for lone women [to estimate their incomes]. |
3. a. Standing apart from others of its kind; isolated. Formerly esp. in phr. lone house (sometimes hyphened).
| 1667 Wood Life 1 Sept. (O.H.S.) II. 143 This Cooper's hill is a lone-house. 1717 Pope Let. to Misses Blount 13 Sept., No Lone-house in Wales, with a Mountain and Rookery, is more contemplative than this Court. 1722 De Foe Plague (1840) 180 In a single, or, as we call it, a lone house. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. iii. (1869) I. 18 In the lone cottages of the Highlands. 1813 Sketches Charac. (ed. 2) I. 138 'Twas a lone house, in a garden, with walls round it. 1819 Sporting Mag. IV. 274 A little lone public-house, about a mile from our village. 1850 Scoresby Cheever's Whalem. Adv. viii. (1859) 112 Dragging the lone boat quite out of sight from the mast-head. 1853 M. Arnold Scholar-Gipsy vi, At some lone ale-house in the Berkshire moors. |
b. lone star, the single star on the state flag of Texas, hence called the Lone Star State. Also Lone Star Stater, a Texan.
| 1843 W. B. Dewees Lett. from Early Settler Texas (1852) 246 The lone star of Texas shall continue to wave proudly in the air as long as one brave Texan remains to defend it. 1845 Congress. Globe 28th Congress 2 Sess. App. 78/3 The ‘lone star’ has found a place upon the democratic banners. 1848 Ibid. 30th Congress 1 Sess. App. 973/1 Texas was then a ‘lone star’. She is now one of thirty. 1860 Ibid. 5 Dec. 11/3 There is a clog in the way of the lone-star State of Texas in the person of her Governor. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West 805, I am proud to find him in honor and position among the ‘Lone Star Staters’. 1873 Z. N. Morrell Flowers & Fruits (ed. 2) 20 Sam. Houston was then in Texas..intending..to set in motion ‘a little two-horse republic under the Lone Star’. 1886 B. P. Poore Perley's Reminisc. I. 315 It took him only from February 28th to April 12th to conclude the negotiation which placed the ‘Lone Star’ in the azure field of the ensign of the Republic. 1909 ‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny xvi. 267 The Lone Star State never yet failed to grant relief, [etc.]. 1943 B. House (title) I give you Texas: 500 jokes of the Lone Star State. 1971 Times 21 Sept. (Ireland Suppl.) 1/4 Two experts from Texas are using Cork as a base..appropriate, since co Cork has always had some of the aggressive independence of the lone star state. |
c. lone wolf (orig. U.S.) fig., (a) one who mixes little with others, keeps himself to himself; (b) a criminal who operates alone; also attrib. Hence (with hyphen) as v. intr., to live, work, operate, etc., alone.
| 1909 F. H. Tillotson How to be a Detective 130 Occasionally the police run across Panhandlers known as ‘lone wolves’—that is they do not mix with others of their class. 1927 Dialect Notes V. 454 Lone wolf, a bandit or house breaker who works without confederates. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 May 415/3 He was the ‘lone wolf’ of the campaign for federation. 1938 Amer. Speech XIII. 195 Lone-wolf v. 1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart ii. iv. 249, I am quite enough of a lone wolf as it is. 1944 R. F. Adams Western Words 93/1 Lone-wolfing, living alone, avoiding companionship of others. 1950 ‘S. Ransome’ Deadly Miss Ashley iii. 35 He had been given hardly a dime's worth of information by the lone-wolf doctor. 1953 A. Baron Human Kind xvii. 121 They despised his ignorance, his vices and his pitiless lone-wolf philosophy. 1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. x. 166 She is..a kind of lone wolf thief. 1955 Times 11 July 10/1 A ‘lone wolf’ terrorist. 1959 Anon. Streetwalker viii. 154 He's no lone wolf from Leeds or anywhere else. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 408 The lone-wolf hope that we can begin to explore a little more. 1966 J. Philips Wings of Madness ii. iv. 131 You are in very serious danger if you try to lone-wolf it. 1966 G. Burnett Dead Account vii. 51 Remember what I said..no lone-wolfing, no withholding information. 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard i. 19 An individualist to be watched unless he should develop into too much of a lone wolf. 1973 J. Rossiter Manipulators ii. 21 Detective Inspector De Moro..had given him a preliminary reprimand about lone-wolfing operations. |
d. lone pair (Physical Chem.): a pair of electrons in the outer shell of an atom which are not involved in bonding.
| 1923 Chem. & Industry Rev. 2 Nov. 1051/1 A basic substance is one which has a lone pair of electrons which may be used to complete the stable group of another atom. 1964 J. W. Linnett Electronic Struct. Molecules ii. 31 In ammonia there are, therefore, three shared-pairs and one lone-pair. |
4. poet. Of places: Lonely; unfrequented, uninhabited.
| 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iv. 154 Oh had I rather un⁓admir'd remain'd In some lone isle, or distant Northern land. 1717 ― Eloisa 141 In these lone walls..Thy eyes diffus'd a reconciling ray. 1795 Burns Song, ‘Their groves o' sweet myrtles’, Far dearer to me yon lone glen o' green breckan. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. i, In lone Glenartney's hazel shade. 1864 Browning Dîs Aliter Visum vii, We stepped O'er the lone stone fence. |
† 5. Only, sole. Obs.
| 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. ii. 613 Ile make it my lone request, that he wold be good to a scholler. |
6. predicatively and quasi-adv. † a. = alone; by myself, itself (etc.). Obs.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage, Descr. India (1864) 156 Floris enterd lone as it were for businesse. c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. IV. 29 She carefully avoided meeting him lone, though often and earnestly urged to it. |
b. Sc. and north. dial. with possessive pronoun prefixed, as my lane = by myself. (Cf. alone 3.) More recently also in form lone (and lones).
| 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxii. (Laurentius) 521 Þe crystine..Lowand god of al his lane. a 1584 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 678 How Hope and Curage tuik the man And led him all thair lanis. a 1600 ― Misc. Poems iii. 33 And ladds vploips to lordships all thair lains. 1631 Rutherford Lett. xiv. (1862) I. 67 He had many against Him and compeared His lone in the fields against them all. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. ii. iii, When Bessy Freetock's chuffy-cheeked wean..cou'dna stand its lane. 1788 Burns Let. to J. Tennant 21 My shins, my lane, I there sit roastin'. 1894 Crockett Raiders 134 Can ye no let an auld man dee his lane? 1902 Kipling Just So Stories 197 They walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. Ibid. 206 This is the picture of the Cat that Walked by Himself, walking by his wild lone through the Wet Wild Woods. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 28 May 2/4 The roads are dusty and dry When you walk 'em all by your lone. 1910 W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 21 But why for do they let a sick man like you travel all by his lone? 1917 W. J. Locke Red Planet vi. 75 After five minutes on my lones, I felt as if I should go off my head. 1941 W. de la Mare Coll. Poems 7 As she asks in her lone, This old, desolate crone. |
7. Comb. (adverbial and parasynthetic).
| 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 215 Those loud-tongued adulators, the mob, overpowered the lone-whispered denunciations of conscience. 1887 G. Meredith Ballads & P. 141 Lycophron, this breathless, this lone-laid. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 15 Dec. 4/3 A man who could trust himself lone-handed in mid-ocean in such a craft. |
▸ Designating or involving a parent who does not live with a partner and thus has most, or all, of the responsibility for bringing up a child or children. See also lone parent n. Cf. single adj. 8c.
| 1949 N.Y. Times 20 Sept. 3/1 (advt.) Ample living space, meals available in Riverdale, N.Y.C. home for 12-year youth and lone parent. 1953 M. A. Michael tr. L. Björk Wages, Prices & Social Legislation in Soviet Union x. 128 As a rule children remain in kindergartens not more than 9 hours a day. In exceptional cases, however, the children of lone mothers may stay longer. 1972 Ann. Rep. National Council Unmarried Mother & Child 1971–72 13/2 Whether the cause of lone parenthood is divorce, separation, illegitimacy or loss of a parent through death, one-parent families have a number of problems in common. 1976 Economist (Nexis) 6 Mar. 27 In 1956, only 56,000 lone mothers were living on supplementary benefit;..in 1974, the figure was 245,000. 1985 Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) (Nexis) 9 Apr. b1 Despite expected increases in divorce, lone parenting and lifelong single status, the American family is not falling apart, say social scientists and census takers. 1997 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 7 Aug. 8 The proportion of children living in lone-parent families has almost tripled since 1972 and there were 12 lone mothers to every lone father. Most absent fathers kept in touch with their children and only 3% never saw them. |
▪ III. lone
obs. form of loan n. and v.