English

Noun

singlet ‎(plural singlets)

1. (Britain, Australia, Ireland, Nigeria, New Zealand) A vest; a sleeveless garment with a low-cut neck, often worn underneath a shirt.
   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p28,

     Winston wrenched his body out of bed — naked, for a member of the Outer Party received only 3,000 clothing coupons annually, and a suit of pyjamas was 600 — and seized a dingy singlet and a pair of shorts that were lying across a chair.

   • 2000, Nicole Matthews, Kitsch on the Fringe: Suburbia in Recent Australian Comedy Film, Roger Webster, Expanding Suburbia: Reviewing Suburban Narratives, page 176,

     The semiotics of the singlet - immediately identifiable in Australia, especially in its usual shade of blue, with male manual labourers¹⁶ - underlines the contrast between the effete fakery of ballroom costumes and real masculinity to be found underneath or in the world of folk dancing.

   • 2006, Albert Moran, Errol Vieth, Film in Australia: An Introduction, page 85,

     However, even in the latter he wears a blue singlet to help remind the audience of his working-class roots.

   • 2009, Deborah Penrith, Live & Work in: Australia, Crimson Publishing, UK, page 192,

     Women wear dresses, cropped trousers and vests with lightweight linen jackets and you will find men in anything from a business suit to a pair of stubbies (very short shorts) and a singlet top (white vest) or knee-length cargo trousers.

2. (physics) A multiplet having a single member, especially a single spectroscopic peak.
3. (physics, quantum mechanics) A quantum state having zero spin.
   • 2003, Timothy M. Cox, 90: Protoporphyria, Karl M. Kadish, Kevin M. Smith, Roger Guilard, (editors), The Porphyrin Handbook, Volume 14: Medical Aspects of Porphyrins, page 132,

     When a ground state molecule absorbs a photon, the values of the electron spins are not altered and thus the primary excited state is the singlet state.

   • 2010, Donald L. Pavia, Gary M. Lampman, George S. Kriz, Randall G. Engel, A Small Scale Approach to Organic Laboratory Techniques, page 416,

     However, even if it were possible to supply benzophenone with radiation of the appropriate wavelength to produce the second excited singlet state of the molecule, this singlet would rapidly convert to the lowest singlet state (S1).

Synonyms

• (garment worn underneath a shirt): undershirt, vest, wifebeater

Derived terms

• singlet oxygen

Translations

Anagrams

• glisten, niglets, sniglet, tingles