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SOLITUDE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A solitary place
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Hypernyms ("solitude" is a kind of...):
place; spot; topographic point (a point located with respect to surface features of some region)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The state or situation of being alone
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("solitude" is a kind of...):
isolation (a state of separation between persons or groups)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A state of social isolation
Synonyms:
purdah; solitude
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("solitude" is a kind of...):
isolation (a state of separation between persons or groups)
Context examples:
"I'm afraid something has happened. Step into the garden, Scott, while I look up Mrs. Brooke," said John, alarmed at the silence and solitude.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He was gone—he had touched her hand for the last time, he had made his parting bow, and she might seek directly all that solitude could do for her.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Henry made no reply, and plodded on alone, though often he cast anxious glances back into the grey solitude where his partner had disappeared.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
On the 15th, he tried again, and was again refused; and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
His extreme love of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from America.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
That he might not be irritated into an absolute fever, by the fire which Mr. Woodhouse's tender habits required almost every evening throughout the year, he soon afterwards took a hasty leave, and walked home to the coolness and solitude of Donwell Abbey.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
He waits until the only other person in the house is in bed, and then in the solitude of a man’s room he murders him, burns his body in the wood-pile, and departs to a neighbouring hotel.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
For in such a solitude as I desired, I could at least enjoy my own thoughts, and reflect with delight on the virtues of those inimitable Houyhnhnms, without an opportunity of degenerating into the vices and corruptions of my own species.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I stole down to my own mansion, entered it at night, and, leaving all that was dear to me behind, I crept like a rat behind the wainscot, to live out the remainder of my weary life in solitude and misery.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
To be together is for us to be at once as free as in solitude, as gay as in company.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
