solitude

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely life; loneliness. [1913 Webster]

Whosoever is delighted with solitude is either a wild beast or a god.— Bacon.[1913 Webster]

O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face?— Cowper.[1913 Webster]

2.Remoteness from society; destitution of company; seclusion; -- said of places; as, the solitude of a wood. [1913 Webster]

The solitude of his little parish is become matter of great comfort to him.— Law.[1913 Webster]

3.solitary or lonely place; a desert or wilderness. [1913 Webster]

In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells.— Pope.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

O blest retirement, friend to life's decline.— Goldsmith.[1913 Webster]

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.[1913 Webster]

It is a place of seclusion from the external world.— Bp. Horsley.[1913 Webster]

These evils . . . seem likely to reduce it [a city] ere long to the loneliness and the insignificance of a village.— Eustace.[1913 Webster]