one
/wʌn
/- We had to wait in line for one hour, and it was another hour before we got our food.
- The garden is enclosed with shrubs and has parking room for one car at the rear.
- Organising on the job was difficult as it involved chasing up members in ones and twos and having to go back to the job if a member was off sick.
- You may bid by ones until you reach 60; bids above 60 must be multiples of 5 (65, 70, 75 etc.).
- Many of us tend to buy products in just ones or twos.
Synonyms
- More of the speakers admit openly that drug smuggling was their one chance at something better.
- But now she is heading back to Oz and we met up for one last lunch to say our goodbyes.
- But in the end he lacked the sagacity or the low cunning to do the one thing necessary.
- It is also not possible for one spouse to sell the marital home from underneath the other.
- One city in Alaska has 17 different air carriers.
- The money was spent on posters for one of the wards and pain-relieving equipment.
- It may even be possible that there were at one time plans for a spire, probably of timber.
- I woke up early one morning, feeling quite sick.
- He looked pale and yawned several times, at one point cradling his head in his hands.
Synonyms
- The first car to be registered in York belonged to one Mr Edwin Gray of Gray's Court, York.
- The drama follows the efforts of one Mrs Bennet to marry off her three daughters without any regard for the matter of true love in any such alliances.
- The hotel has a new man at the helm in the kitchens, one John Hogg from Scotland.
- As it is, well, they're one hell of a cult band.
- She's one amazing gal.
- It's gonna be one big party!
- I started the work at half ten on Sunday night and finished at one on Monday morning.
- By one in the morning everything was quiet again and we went back to bed.
- At half past one on a weekday the restaurant was less than half full.
- She wasn't the tall skinny size one or the average size five that so many other girls on T.V. are.
- Suddenly these bacteria started swimming all in one direction across the microscope slide and he wondered what they were responding to.
- I don't think I've ever seen so many golf buggies parked together in one place in my life!
- Next year all goods will be taxed at the one rate of 15 percent.
- And did you hear about the one about the drunk bear, walked into a bar?
- Ah, Jesus, that's a good one. Is it joking you are?
- ‘Hey Terry, you only just got here and you've already had one too many’ he said, placing our drinks on a bench.
- I'm off to the bar for a quick one.
- I'll be in the bar at 12.30 if anyone fancies one.
- You think only Bella one can go to America.
- Anansi wanted the pig to eat an' he wanted to eat him one.
- I still have a jersey from 1995 but it's not that white anymore and it was time to get a new one.
- The men all had Irish accents and one was referred to Jon Jon.
- She knew she had the face of a teenager, and always hated being referred to as one.
- One feels for police who have to inform families that one of their loved ones has just been killed.
- He's not one for making a fuss.
- She's the one who broke all my equipment.
- Your photo of Susan Brookes of whom very few have heard, proclaimed her to be such a one.
- Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.
- Oh you are a one - you've got me talking about my body already, and we hardly know each other!
- It is in the context of such fears that choosing the sex of one's children must seem tempting.
- What is one to make, for example, of the way he is said to have behaved?
- Was this before, or after an encounter with Mr Knight, one is compelled to ask?
Usage
In modern English the use of one as a pronoun to mean ‘anyone’ or ‘me and people in general’, as in one must try one’s best, is generally restricted to formal contexts, outside which it is likely to be regarded as rather pompous or old-fashioned. In informal and spoken contexts the normal alternative is you, as in you have to do what you can, don’t you?.
Phrases
at one
for one
get it in one
have one over the eight
one after another (or the other)
one and all
one and only
one by one
one day
one for one
one of a kind
one or another (or the other)
one or two
one thing and another
the one
Origin
Old English ān, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch een and German ein, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin unus. The initial w sound developed before the 15th century and was occasionally represented in the spelling; it was not accepted into standard English until the late 17th century.
Like the other main number words, one goes back to Old English. It shares an ancient root with Latin unus, and so is linked with such words as unique (early 17th century), unity (Middle English), and unison (Late Middle English). The one that got away is a term for something desirable that has eluded capture. The phrase comes from the angler's traditional way of trying to impress by boasting ‘You should have seen the one that got away’. A one-horse town is a small town with hardly any facilities, particularly in the USA. Such towns are associated with the Wild West, and the term is first recorded in a US magazine of 1855. The previous year, though, there is a record of a specific place of that name: ‘The principal mining localities are…Whiskey Creek, One Horse Town, One Mule Town, Clear Creek [etc.].’ Also American is the one-trick pony, a person with only one talent or area of expertise. This goes back to the days of travelling circuses in the early 20th century. It would be a poor circus whose pony had only one trick. Once and future refers to someone or something that is eternal, enduring, or constant. It probably comes from T. H. White's The Once and Future King (1958), a series of novels about King Arthur. In White's story the enchanter Merlyn says to Arthur: ‘Do you know what is going to be written on your tombstone? Hic jacet Arthurus Rex quondam Rexque futurus. Do you remember your Latin? It means, the once and future king.’ A bad experience can make you wary of the same thing happening again, a feeling which might be summed up concisely with the words once bitten, twice shy. The expression has been around since the late 19th century, although in the USA you might say instead once burned, twice shy.