Now rare. [f. SOLE a.]
1. Solitude; solitariness. Obs.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xv. 235. Forto haue quietnes and soolnes to preie to God or to a Seint.
1534. Whitinton, Tullyes Offices, I. (1540), 63. A large house is ofte a reproche to his master, if there be in it soolnesse and no recourse.
1612. J. Davies (Heref.), Muse’s Sacr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 68/2. Solenesse, brings sadnesse; Company, but strife.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Monodia, 100. Her selfe to sadnesse and to solenesse taking.
2. The state or condition of being sole, alone or apart.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, vi. 90. The first God … being afore the Beeēr, and alone,… yet … abydeth still in the solenesse of his vnitie.
1631. R. Bolton, Comf. Affl. Consc., xi. (1635), 274. Hee is much troubled with solenesse in suffering.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), I. 39. The laurel importing conquest and sovereignty, and so by consequence soleness in that faculty.
1748. Chesterf., Lett. (1792), II. clx. 74. An advantage which France has…; which is (if I may use the expression) its soleness, continuity of riches and power within itself.
1889. Hannah Lynch, in Macm. Mag., Jan., 205/1. The Greek islander is never coarse, balanced, as he is, with curious soleness, between the barbarian and the gentleman.
