one-night stand

noun

1

: a performance (as of a play or concert) given (as by a traveling group of actors or musicians) only once in each of a series of localities

2

a

: a locality used for one-night stands

b

: a stopover for a one-night stand

3

: a sexual encounter limited to a single occasion

also : a partner in such an encounter

Examples of one-night stand in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

If Evan had kept his mouth shut about his one-night stand with Lucy, so many of the threads wouldn’t have ever been knotted in the story. —Dana Feldman, Forbes.com, 16 Jan. 2026

In the 2015 timeline, Bree is about to marry Evan, though their relationship will no doubt be complicated by Stephen having sent her a voice memo of Evan confessing to his one-night stand with Lucy. —Allison Degrushe, Entertainment Weekly, 14 Jan. 2026

The buoyant track sees Robyn rapping about having one-night stands while 10 weeks pregnant via IVF. —Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 8 Jan. 2026

The play saw the actors star as two strangers who have a drunken one-night stand after meeting at a wedding. —Tommy McArdle, PEOPLE, 8 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1880, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for one-night stand

• analysand
• misunderstand
• ampersand
• beforehand
• behindhand
• bottomland
• contraband
• countermand
• dixieland
• fairyland
• fatherland
• firebrand