Hypertext Webster Gateway: "solitude"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

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 state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely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.

Whosoever is delighted with solitude is either a
wild beast or a god. --Bacon.

O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have
seen in thy face? --Cowper.

2. Remoteness from society; destitution of company;
seclusion; -- said of places; as, the solitude of a wood.

The solitude of his little parish is become matter
of great comfort to him. --Law.

3. solitary or lonely place; a desert or wilderness.

In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where
heavenly pensive contemplation dwells. --Pope.

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.

O blest retirement, friend to life's decline.
--Goldsmith.

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.

It is a place of seclusion from the external
world. --Bp. Horsley.

These evils . . . seem likely to reduce it [a
city] ere long to the loneliness and the
insignificance of a village. --Eustace.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (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}]


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