one-night stand
1
5.8
- noun
- /ˈwʌnˌnaɪt stænd/
:
función única
- After weeks of preparation, the comedian performed a successful one-night stand at the local club.
Examples
-
Why, I've worked in cheap vaudeville, one night stands, honky-tonks, burlesque...
-
You can't ask a one-night stand to come back tomorrow night!
-
I mean, it is romance, isn't it, and not just a one-night stand?
-
And I remember I came up with the lyric, "I guess it's true I'm not good at one-night stand," and at first, Jimmy and Tourist were a bit like, "This is-- we can't use that, 'cause it's a bit too literal.
-
The theater hosted a spectacular one-night stand featuring local bands last Saturday.
-
They organized a live concert as a one-night stand to raise funds for charity.
Synonyms
8
5.6
An event that happens only once and is not repeated
Antonyms
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
one-night + stand
Although 'one-night' transparently signals a duration of a single night, the noun 'stand' does not compose with that duration to predict the specific meaning 'brief sexual encounter.' The sexual/euphemistic sense is idiomatic and not derivable from the literal meanings of the constituents, so a B1 learner who only knows the words would likely not infer the full meaning reliably.
Etymology
One-night stand comes from traveling performers. A performer would take a one-night stand, one show in a town and then leave, so the phrase means 'a performance on only one night'.