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 state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely life; loneliness.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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

It is a place of seclusion from the external world.

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