Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a small rural town.

1884		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Jan. 3/1: [She] is still heroically producing ‘Oliver Twist’ round the country with the very worst company ever seen even by the hapless residents of a one-night-stand.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 10: The Primitive Yokels of a One-Night Stand could not Attune Themselves to the Views of one who was troubled with Ideals.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 160–1: I drinks a toast to the guy what was clever enough to think up a game like that all by himself in a Reub one-night stand.
c.1930		(ref. to late 1901) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 294: They [...] most likely were already peddling their tail on the side as most actresses did in those little one night stands.
1948		Chicago Trib. 24 Jan. 1/2: The show [...] was to have finished the week here and then to have played one night stands thru central Ohio [DA].

2. an affair that lasts only a single night, thus a person with whom one has such a relationship.

[1880		D.K. Ranous Diary of a Daly Débutante (1910) 189: This coming week [...] is to be what they call ‘one-night stands’].
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 18: What are your rules on one-night stands? I get a lot of couples looking for a place to throw one.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 298: These autocourts! [...] Perfect joints for the one-night stand.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 38: This ain’t gonna be no one-night stand.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 216: The good thing about a proper scrubber, as opposed to a local one-night-stand, was that they never asked you what you did in the day.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 223: After Reggie [...] you’ll just go for one night stands.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 6: It was and had been all along, a one- or two-night stand and nothing more.
1982		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 4: hosebag [...] girl who is expected to participate in ‘one-night stands’.
1985		J. Morrison Share House Blues 93: Imagine the specialist in meaningful one-night stands, nervous!
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 184: A rather pointless, embarrassing one-night stand.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 170: A one-night stand with an older woman.
2002		A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 63: They [...] looked (and leered) round the joint for a bit of easy pick-up that wouldn’t mind a booze-stinking one-night stand.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] When they had their last, unexpected one-night stand, she was seeing Don.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 27: [M]ore often they were one-night stands, both parties looking for a bit of fun.
2020		A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 75: Some one-night stand of Billy’s?

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 59: It was a kind of Niagara Falls, strictly the one-night stand type.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 54: One-night-stand girls who came back for more.

4. (N.Z. drugs/prison) a small measure of cannabis (enough for one night’s smoking).

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 130/2: one night stand n. a marijuana foil, a tinny.