Solitude

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Solitude \Sol"i*tude\, n. [F., from L. solitudo, solus alone.
     See {Sole}, a.]
     1. state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely
        life; loneliness.
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              Whosoever is delighted with solitude is either a
              wild beast or a god.                  --Bacon.
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              O Solitude! where are the charms
              That sages have seen in thy face?     --Cowper.
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     2. Remoteness from society; destitution of company;
        seclusion; -- said of places; as, the solitude of a wood.
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              The solitude of his little parish is become matter
              of great comfort to him.              --Law.
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     3. solitary or lonely place; a desert or wilderness.
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              In these deep solitudes and awful cells
              Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells. --Pope.
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     Syn: Syn. Loneliness; soitariness; loneness; retiredness;
          recluseness. -- {Solitude}, {Retirement}, {Seclusion},
          {Loneliness}.
  
     Usage: Retirement is a withdrawal from general society,
            implying that a person has been engaged in its scenes.
            Solitude describes the fact that a person is alone;
            seclusion, that he is shut out from others, usually by
            his own choice; loneliness, that he feels the pain and
            oppression of being alone. Hence, retirement is
            opposed to a gay, active, or public life; solitude, to
            society; seclusion, to freedom of access on the part
            of others; and loneliness, enjoyment of that society
            which the heart demands.
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                  O blest retirement, friend to life's decline.
                                                    --Goldsmith.
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                  Such only can enjoy the country who are capable
                  of thinking when they are there; then they are
                  prepared for solitude; and in that [the country]
                  solitude is prepared for them.    --Dryden.
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                  It is a place of seclusion from the external
                  world.                            --Bp. Horsley.
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                  These evils . . . seem likely to reduce it [a
                  city] ere long to the loneliness and the
                  insignificance of a village.      --Eustace.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  solitude
       n 1: a state of social isolation [syn: {purdah}]
       2: a solitary place
       3: a disposition toward being alone [syn: {aloneness}, {loneliness},
           {lonesomeness}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  26 Moby Thesaurus words for "solitude":
     alienation, aloneness, aloofness, celibacy, confinement,
     detachment, emptiness, isolation, keeping apart, loneliness,
     loneness, lonesomeness, moving apart, privacy, quarantine,
     remoteness, retirement, seclusion, separateness, sequestration,
     single blessedness, singleness, solitariness, splendid isolation,
     wilderness, withdrawal