single-handed

/ˌˈsɪŋgəl ˌˈhændəd/

/sɪŋgəlˈhændɪd/

Other forms: single-handedly

If something is completely independent, with no help from anyone, it's single-handed. Your solo hiking expedition, for example, is single-handed.

Use the adjective single-handed to describe something that's unassisted, or that's achieved without aid from other people. Your single-handed campaign for school president is undertaken without anyone's help, and your mom's single-handed parenting was done on her own. From the 1400's, the word single was used to mean "unsupported by others," and single-handed first came into use around 1700.

Definitions of single-handed

1. adjective

   without help from others
   “a single-handed accomplishment”

   synonyms:

   independent

   free from external control and constraint
2. adjective

   unsupported by other people
   synonyms: unassisted, unbacked

   unsupported

   not sustained or maintained by nonmaterial aid
3. adverb

   without assistance
   synonyms: single-handedly