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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
solitary
I.adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a lonely/solitary existence (=without anyone else with you)
▪ Male bears live a mostly solitary existence, away from the female and cubs.
lead/live a solitary/frugal etc existence
▪ The women lead a miserable existence.
solitary confinement
▪ He spent more than half his time in prison in solitary confinement.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
figure
▪ The benches are empty except for a solitary figure sitting huddled in a mackintosh, watching with fierce concentration.
▪ The Ahlberg version features a solitary figure.
▪ A solitary figure standing there in a trench coat under one of the street lamps?
life
▪ The solitary life did not mean that a contemplative was deprived of all human contact, however.
▪ It is not the same thing as being a loner, or introvert, who chooses a solitary life.
▪ Now it was a solitary life.
▪ The bulls lead more or less solitary lives outside the herd.
▪ Some hunting wasps live entirely solitary lives.
man
▪ He looked pleased: a solitary man, by the look of him, one who cherished his privacy.
▪ Newman was either full of baloney or a solitary man being steamrolled by big business.
▪ Gimson was a deeply solitary man with a contradictory need for close male friendships.
▪ Hamilton, a bachelor, was described by local people as an odd, solitary man who walked with a stoop.
▪ He is a rather solitary man.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A solitary figure stood at the end of the bar.
▪ A solitary light shone in the street.
▪ Ed enjoys the solitary life of a rancher.
▪ Hamilton was described as a solitary man.
▪ Helena took long solitary walks to the lake.
▪ I could see a solitary figure outlined against the horizon.
▪ She was a very solitary woman who didn't make friends easily.
▪ There was one solitary hotel left standing after the earthquake.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A solitary tear escaped his eye, and he cursed himself for it.
▪ Even his hobbies were the solitary pursuits of hunting and fishing.
▪ Gimson was a deeply solitary man with a contradictory need for close male friendships.
▪ He looked pleased: a solitary man, by the look of him, one who cherished his privacy.
▪ It isn't a solitary clunker that produced a 103-85 loss to the Miami Heat that is offensive.
▪ Normally solitary characters, after infection these animals lived in harmony with each other, mating and raising many pups.
▪ She pulls the Datsun over and enjoys her first solitary moment since her arrival.
▪ The larvae live in kin groups and are aposematic, while the adults disperse to live a solitary existence and are cryptic.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Judge orders confiscation of smuggler's £1.5m assets Drugs baron faces 15 years in solitary.
▪ The gods of the field incline with the solitaries of the study.
▪ Then shepherds - but shepherds are solitaries.
▪ When he left the infirmary he was due to spend two weeks in solitary.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
solitary

Solitaire \Sol`i*taire"\, n. [F. See Solitary.]

  1. A person who lives in solitude; a recluse; a hermit.
    --Pope.

  2. A single diamond in a setting; also, sometimes, a precious stone of any kind set alone.

    Diamond solitaires blazing on his breast and wrists.
    --Mrs. R. H. Davis.

  3. A game which one person can play alone; -- applied to many games of cards, etc.; also, to a game played on a board with pegs or balls, in which the object is, beginning with all the places filled except one, to remove all but one of the pieces by ``jumping,'' as in draughts.

  4. (Zo["o]l.)

    1. A large extinct bird ( Pezophaps solitaria) which formerly inhabited the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigeuz. It was larger and taller than the wild turkey. Its wings were too small for flight. Called also solitary.

    2. Any species of American thrushlike birds of the genus Myadestes. They are noted their sweet songs and retiring habits. Called also fly-catching thrush. A West Indian species ( Myadestes sibilans) is called the invisible bird.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
solitary

mid-14c., "alone, living alone," from Old French solitaire, from Latin solitarius "alone, lonely, isolated," from solitas "loneliness, solitude," from solus "alone" (see sole (adj.)). Meaning "single, sole, only" is from 1742. Related: Solitarily; solitariness. As a noun from late 14c.; from 1854 as short for solitary confinement (that phrase recorded from 1690s).

Wiktionary
solitary

a. Living or being by one's self; alone; having no companion present; being without associates. n. 1 One who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchoret, hermit or recluse. 2 solitary confinement

WordNet
solitary
  1. n. confinement of a prisoner in isolation from other prisoners; "he was held in solitary" [syn: solitary confinement]

  2. one who lives in solitude [syn: hermit, recluse, solitudinarian, troglodyte]

solitary
  1. adj. characterized by or preferring solitude in mode of life; "the eremitic element in the life of a religious colony"; "a lone wolf"; "a man of a solitary disposition" [syn: eremitic, eremitical, lone(a)]

  2. of plants and animals; not growing or living in groups or colonies; "solitary bees" [syn: nongregarious, nonsocial]

  3. lacking companions or companionship; "he was alone when we met him"; "she is alone much of the time"; "the lone skier on the mountain"; "a lonely fisherman stood on a tuft of gravel"; "a lonely soul"; "a solitary traveler" [syn: alone(p), lone(a), lonely(a)]

  4. enjoyed or performed alone; "a lonely existence"; "his lonely room"; "took a solitary walk"; "enjoyed her solitary dinner"; "solitary pursuits such as reading" [syn: lonely(a)]

  5. being the only one; single and isolated from others; "the lone doctor in the entire county"; "a lonesome pine"; "an only child"; "the sole heir"; "the sole example"; "a solitary instance of cowardice"; "a solitary speck in the sky" [syn: lone(a), lonesome(a), only(a), sole(a), solitary(a)]

  6. separated from or unfrequented by others; remote or secluded; "a lonely crossroads"; "a solitary retreat"; "a trail leading to an unfrequented lake" [syn: lonely(a), unfrequented]

Wikipedia
Solitary

Solitary is the state of being alone or in solitude. The term may refer to:

  • shortened form of solitary confinement
  • Solitary but social, a type of social organization in biology where individuals forage alone but share sleeping space
  • Solitary (Lost), a 2004 episode of the TV series Lost
  • Solitary (TV series), a reality show made by FOX
  • Solitary (album), 2008 album by Don Dokken
  • Solitary ritual, occult practice
  • Solitary Mountain, a mountain in Yukon, Canada
  • Solitary animal, an animal that does not live with others in its species
Solitary (Lost)

"Solitary" is the ninth episode of the first season of Lost, an American television drama series following the survivors of a plane crash stranded on a tropical island. The episode was directed by Greg Yaitanes and written by David Fury. It first aired on November 17, 2004, on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Sayid Jarrah ( Naveen Andrews) is captured by a mysterious French person, who is later revealed to be Danielle Rousseau ( Mira Furlan), a woman who shipwrecked on the island sixteen years before the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 and was alone for almost the entire time. At the island's camp, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes ( Jorge Garcia) creates a golf course in an attempt to relieve the survivors' stress and worry. In flashbacks, Sayid meets a childhood friend, but must interrogate her.

"Solitary" marked the introduction of mythology into Lost, and also solved the first mystery of the series: the origin of the transmission heard in part two of the pilot episode. It also introduced Danielle Rousseau, who would be in a total of 22 episodes through the show. The episode's initial broadcast in the United States attracted 17.64 million viewers. It has had a generally positive reception by critics.

Solitary (TV series)

Solitary is a reality show on the Fox Reality Channel whose contestants were kept in round-the-clock solitary confinement for a number of weeks with the goal of being the last contestant remaining in solitary, for a $50,000 prize. It was the channel's first original series commission with its debut on May 29, 2006. The last season, Solitary 4.0, ended on March 20, 2010.

A German version is broadcast on German TV channel ProSieben. Solitary 3.0 also broadcast in Singapore.

Solitary (album)

Solitary is a 2008 acoustic rock album by Don Dokken (singer of his original band Dokken). The album was only sold to fans attending his tour for the album. It was released in October 21, 2008, exactly eighteen years after his first solo album, Up from the Ashes.

Usage examples of "solitary".

At last, towards sunset, as he gained the empty heights of Bel Air, a solitary dark grey building showed on the Ridge of the Anguille above him, which he knew for the dwelling of Jean Villeneuve, or Jean of the Ridge, as he was generally known.

In the distance he saw Solitary Ridge, a long, ramrod-vertical cliff, distinctive by its angularity in this relatively uniform area.

The size of small dogs with long, trailing tails, these fast, solitary runners, browsing on leaves and fallen fruit, were ancestors of the mighty artiodactyl family, which would one day include pigs, sheep, cattle, reindeer, antelope, giraffes, and camels.

They landed at the edge of a solitary grandfather banyan half a league downstream.

It insisted on English and spoke with a Belter accent, flat and rather neutral, the intonation of a people who were too solitary and too crowded to afford much emotion.

They wanted extraverts and they wanted brilliant scientists who necessarily had had to dive deep into solitary study for years and years.

Traveller pursed his lips and moved a solitary finger in a delicate plea for silence though Marris was not aware that he had made any sound.

When at last an elevator arrived, the doors opened to reveal a solitary passenger, a thin-shouldered and neurasthenic young masseuse who lived with her mother on the 5th floor.

This lack of supportive insight from a concerned and experienced meditator is for many people part of the solitary nature of their inner journey.

The Colonies of Irrya will never give in to the tormented creatures of our dark past, these monsters of miscreation who have never even known the pleasure of living as solitary beings!

She had often wondered if the solitary life of a monkery was not more suited to him.

Yet from the explanatory considerations which have been set forth we can understand the derivation of the multifarious swarm of notions afloat in the world, as the fifteen hundred varieties of apple now known have all been derived from the solitary white crab.

Thomas and his dreaded multiphasic machines to enjoy a couple of hours of solitary jogging through the darkness?

On the third day of September, the king, according to custom, going out in a carriage to take the air, accompanied by one domestic, was, in the night, at a solitary place near Belem, attacked by three men on horseback, armed with musquetoons, one of whom fired his piece at the coachman without effect.

GREAT BOOK, tile Seventy-first on LOVE, wherein nothing is written, but the Reader receives a Lanthorn, a Powder-cask and a Pick-axe, and therewith pursues his yellow-dusking path across the rubble of preceding excavators in the solitary quarry: a yet more instructive passage than the overscrawled Seventieth, or French Section, whence the chapter opens, and where hitherto the polite world has halted.