single trackn.adj.
A. n.
1. A single pair of railway lines (occasionally of tramlines). Also (with hyphen) attributive.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > track
way1700
track1806
rail track1824
railway track1824
line1825
main track1830
railroad track1830
single track1832
railway line1836
electric line1850
1832 Amer. Rail Road Jrnl. 1 245/1 The entire length of single track [is] yet to be laid.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. ii. ii. 192 On the 26th of November, 1833, the first car traversed the whole length of the single track.
1869 Bradshaw's Railway Man. 21 422 There are..190 miles of double track, and 130 miles of sidings.., making the entire length of track equal to 1,137 miles of single track.
1898 McClure's Mag. Mar. 390/1 Running a first-class train on a single-track branch.
1942 ‘N. Shute’ Pied Piper i. 18 The little engine puffed along its single track, pulling its two old coaches through a country dripping with thawing snow.
1955 A. Ross Australia 55 ix. 108 A river runs through it, also a single-track railway line.
1976 P. R. White Planning for Public Transport viii. 164 A number of single-track control systems exist, in which the overriding principle is that only one train has authority to occupy a section at any one time.
2. A recorded strip on magnetic tape that does not have another strip alongside it, usually occupying almost the full width of the tape. Also attributive and adv.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > a sound recording > [adverb]
single track1959
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > a sound recording > [noun] > type of
phonogram1878
phonograph record1878
phonautogram1887
re-recording1927
sound picture1928
studio recording1929
talking book1932
wire recording1933
audiobook1942
bootleg1951
music track1953
demo1954
single track1959
soundbite1973
pod2006
1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 129/1 Single-track recorder, a magnetic tape recorder using a single track, usually the full width of the tape.
1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio vi. 116 It is best to do all original recording single track, and to use other tracks only when copying.
1975 G. N. Patchett F.M. Reception iii. xvi. 162 The whole tape is normally used for professional recording. It is known as single track.
B. adj.
Concentrated on or capable of only one line of thought or action, obsessional, esp. in single-track mind (chiefly U.S.) (cf. one-track adj. at one adj., n., and pron. Compounds 4); affording no choice or opportunity of divergence.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > bias, prejudice > narrow-mindedness > [noun]
narrow-mindedness1646
parvanimitya1691
narrowness1697
narrow-spiritedness1709
little-mindedness1767
narrow-mindeda1774
contraction1775
illiberality1775
smallness1813
illiberalism1839
narrow-heartedness1850
single-track mind1919
tunnel vision1949
the mind > mental capacity > belief > belief, trust, confidence > act of convincing, conviction > [adjective] > persuaded, convinced > by dominant or single idea
possessedc1620
one-ideaed1825
one-idea1845
single track1919
monoideal1922
1919 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Feb. 35/1 The average girl no longer has a single-track mind.
1924 A. J. Small Frozen Gold iv. 108 Sitka Charley's was a single-track mind; dour and grim and devilishly dogged, but still, single-track.
1933 Times Educ. Suppl. 21 Oct. 349/3 In every school, no matter whether it be ‘single-track’ or ‘multi-bias’, there will always be a certain number who fail to come up to the standard set by the school.
c1942 L. Mumford City Devel. (1946) 152 To make up for a single-track concentration, there must be range of vision and comprehensiveness of understanding.
1964 Listener 26 Mar. 508/1 Under the Criminal Justice Act 1948, the double-track system of preventive detention was replaced by a single-track system.
1978 S. Sheldon Bloodline xxxi. 302 Max Hornung had a single-track mind.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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n.adj.1832