sol·i·tude /ˈsɑləˌtud, ˌtjud/
孤獨,單獨,孤寂
Sol·i·tude n.
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 state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely life; loneliness.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.
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.
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solitude
n 1: a state of social isolation [syn: purdah]
2: a solitary place
3: a disposition toward being alone [syn: aloneness, loneliness,
lonesomeness]