bachelor
/ˈbatʃələ
/noun
1A man who is not and has never been married: one of the country’s most eligible bachelors...
- So I figured there would be lots of attractive, hopefully eligible bachelors and bachelorettes around my age.
- A Bunclody man is officially among Ireland's most eligible bachelors following his selection as an escort in this year's International Rose of Tralee contest.
- Once a selection of eligible bachelors are chosen, the audience then gets to decide who gets kicked out each week as Lisa dates them every episode.
1.1 Zoology A male bird or mammal prevented from breeding by a dominant male.Most subjects were older than one year; two mated males and two bachelors were yearlings, and one bachelor was of undetermined age....
- Never at ease when alone, bachelor males routinely seek the company of other species of monkey.
- Adolescent males join a roaming bachelor herd and don't mate until they're anywhere from 15 to 20 years old.
2A person who holds a first degree from a university or other academic institution (only in titles or set expressions): a Bachelor of Arts...
- A graduate of Florida State University with a bachelor's degree in marketing, Roffler has more than 11 years of tire-industry experience.
- Palmer is a 1997 graduate of Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in nursing.
- I transferred from Vassar to Harvard University and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor of arts degree in economics.
3Canadian A bachelor apartment: it’s just one room, a bachelor...
- He says rooms in Toronto cost nearly $500 a month, and bachelors a couple hundred more than that.
4 historical A young knight serving under another’s banner. See also knight bachelor.
Said to be from French bas chevalier, literally 'low knight' (i.e. knight of a low order)
Derivatives
bachelorhood
/ noun ...- The 28-year-old is finally ending his bachelorhood.
- Except for the milestone years, such as 21st birthdays, or the last year of your bachelorhood, very seldom are birthdays the fanfares they used to be.
- And even while they were at it, all the guests were waiting for the bridegroom to come out of hiding and put an end to his bachelorhood.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French bacheler; of uncertain origin.
The word bachelor was adopted from French in the early Middle Ages. The earliest meaning was ‘a young knight serving under another's banner’, one who was not old or rich enough to have his own band of followers. The sense ‘unmarried man’ is known from the late Middle Ages—Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343–1400) wrote in The Canterbury Tales that ‘bachelors have often pain and woe’.