single out

From single (“to take alone, or one by one”, intransitive archaic verb) +‎ out. First attested in 1629.

• enPR: sĭng′gəl out′
• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪŋ.ɡəl ˈaʊ̯t/

  Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪŋ.ɡəl ˈæɔ̯t/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˌsəŋ.ɡəl ˈæʊ̯t/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪŋ.ɡəl ˈʌʊ̯t/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪŋ.ɡel ˈawʈ/
• Hyphenation: sin‧gle out

single out (third-person singular simple present singles out, present participle singling out, simple past and past participle singled out)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To select (someone or something) from a group and highlight them or treat them differently.

   Synonyms: mark out, pick out

   Eddie singled out his favorite marble from the bag.

   Yvonne always wondered why Ernest had singled her out of the group of giggling girls she hung around with.

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:single out.

• Christine Ammer (2013), “single out”, in American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 408, column 1.

• loungiest, touseling