Sŏl'i-tūde, n.
(30), n. [Fr. solitude, It. solitudine, Sp. solidumbre, soledad, Lat. solitudo, from solus, alone.]
Sense 1. A state of being alone; a lonely life; loneliness.
Whoever is delighted with solitude is either a wild beast or a god. Bacon.
Sense 2. Remoteness from society; destitution of company;—said in reference to places; as, the solitude of a wood or a valley.
The solitude of his little parish is become matter of great comfort to him. Law.
Sense 3. A lonely place; a desert.
In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where heavenly-pensive Contemplation dwells. Pope.
Synonyms—Loneliness; solitariness; 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 or active life; solitude, to society; seclusion, to freedom of access on the part of others; and loneliness, to that of society which the heart demands. “O, blest retirement, friend of life's decline.” Goldsmith. “They who can enjoy the country 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 this city ere long to the loneliness and the insignificance of a village.” Eustace.