▪ I. ˈsingler, n. local.
[f. single v.1 7 + -er1.]
One who singles or thins out plants.
| 1878 ‘Saxon’ Gall. Gossip 333 (E.D.D.), Singlers, my boy, singlers;..they're always grumbling. 1886 S.W. Lincs. Gloss. 131 She's gone singling, they can't get singlers enew. 1899 Dundee Advt. 21 Nov. 4/2 The singler has more at his control in the making or unmaking of the crop than average observers imagine. |
▪ II. singler
variant of sanglier, wild boar.
▪ III. † ˈsingler, a. Obs.
Forms: α. 5 sengler, 5–6 syngler (5 -e), 4–6 singler. β. 5–6 synglar (6 -e).
[ad. OF. sengler, seingler:—L. singulār-is singular a.]
= singular, in various senses.
| α c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. pr. vii. (1868) 57 Nat only þe names of singler men ne may nat strecchen, but eke þe fame of Citees. 1469 Cal. Rec. Dublin (1889) 336 If any of the portoures goo owt with cariage into the contry, for ther sengler avayle. 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Hawking b iij b, Iff ye haue a chastised hounde,..vncouple him..and goo to a sengler partrich. 1514 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 146 To alle and syngler covenantes and grauntes. 1579 Fenton Guicciard. vii. (1599) 295 Maximilian retaining still a singler ambition in this iorney, would admit no companion. |
| β c 1470 Henry Wallace xi. 241 Bot for a dog,..I will haiff nayn, bot synglar as I ga. c 1500 Sc. Poem on Heraldry 190 in Q. Eliz. Acad. 100 The quhiche stanis..ar so precyus singlare. 1542 Udall in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 2 My singlar good Maister. |
So † ˈsinglerly adv., singularly; † ˈsinglerty, singleness. Obs.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 429 Now for synglerty o hyr dousour, We calle hyr fenyx of Arraby. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 8 It longiþ to þe gretnes of God to graunt singlerly þeis priuilegs. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 714 Þe singlerte [L. solitudo] of þi lyfis ende. 1487 Hen. VII in Epist. Acad. Oxon. (1898) II. 524 Wherby ye shall singlerly please us. |