Category:Solitude

Sol"i*tude, n. Etym: [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 state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely life; Loneliness.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. Loneliness; soitariness; loneness; retiredness; recluseness. -- solitude, retirement, seclusion, loneliness. 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.