Meaning of once | Babel Free

Definitions

1. One and only one time.
   not-comparable
2. Formerly, once.
3. Formerly; during some period in the past.
   not-comparable
4. At any time; ever.
   not-comparable, obsolete
5. One day, someday.
   not-comparable, obsolete
6. Multiplied by one: indicating that a number is multiplied by one.
   not-comparable

Equivalents

Examples

“I have only once eaten pizza.”

“He was once the most handsome man around.”

“I once had a motorbicycle.”

“Once I didn't drive a big car, but now I own an all-terrain 4WD.”

“Wang notes that flowers have rooted and grow in the area once covered with ice.”

“Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.”

“The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.”

“Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.”

“The wisdom of God thought fit to acquaint David with that court which we shall once govern.”

“If the facts once became known, we'd be in trouble.”

“Once three is three.”

CEFR level