01 n. state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely life; loneliness.
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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.
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3.
solitary or lonely place; a desert or wilderness.“In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells.” — Pope.“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.
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.