In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where heavenly pensive
contemplation dwells.
Pope.
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.
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.
So*liv"a*gant (?), a. [L. solus alone + vagans wandering.] Wandering
alone. [R.] T. Grander.
So*liv"a*gous (?), a. [L. solivagus.] Solivagant.