one-night stand

plural one-night stands

1. An occasion when a performer or team of them (especially in vaudeville) expects to perform at a theater for a single evening.

   Again, when the affair is over, I catch a glimpse of myself running to catch a train for our next one-night stand.

   1916 March 25, Irvin S. Cobb, “"Unaccustomed as I am—"”, in Saturday Evening Post

   1 more example

   It wasn't until the third or fourth or fifth drops that I became aware of this rain that was to engulf my life. I remember the date, August 3, 1928. We were playing a one-night stand in a small town in Louisiana, Glenberry.

   1948, Barré Lyndon, Jonathan Latimer (screenplay), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (motion picture), spoken by John Triton (Edward G. Robinson)

2. idiomaticA single sexual encounter between two individuals, where at least one of the partners has no immediate intention or expectation of establishing a longer-term sexual or romantic relationship.

   Near-synonyms: hit and run; pump and dump; wham, bam, thank you ma'am

   Synonyms: hit and run, pump and dump, wham, bam, thank you ma'am

3. idiomaticEither of the two partners involved in such a single sexual encounter.

   “So she was just a one-night stand like all the rest?”

   2011, Jane Graves, Black Ties and Lullabies, Forever, published 2011, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Chet's mom was never home. She always went out gambling, partying and staying overnight with one of her sugar daddies. Chet never met his father. He was just a one-night stand she'd had eighteen years ago.

   2004, Paul G. Nation, The Jacksonville Four: Living Where Money Grows on Trees, AuthorHouse, published 2004, →ISBN, page 20

   She was a one-night stand he'd met at the gym, and Herschel couldn't remember her name.

   2009, HoneyB, Single Husbands, Grand Central Publishing, →ISBN, unnumbered page