Also 4–6 solytarie, 5–6 -ary(e; 4–7 solitarie, 5 -arye; 6 soletary. [ad. L. sōlitārius, f. sōlus alone; hence also It., Sp., Pg. solitario, F. solitaire (see SOLITAIRE a.).]
1. Quite alone or unaccompanied; destitute or deprived of the society of others.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter ci. 8. I am made as sparow solitary in þe hous.
1382. Wyclif, Esther xiv. 3. My Lord, that art king alone, help me solitarie.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1576. I salle disseuere that sorte,… And sett theme fulle solytarie.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 3060. So ful I am of discomfort,… Fro day to day most ful of moone, Solytarye and allone.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 2780. Whan she was solytary, and no man there present.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 173. What one of these solytarie wanderers dyd.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 121. I am ofttimes sole, but seldom solitary.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 129. All but yon widow’d solitary thing [is fled].
1797. Wordsw., Old Cumberland Beggar, 44. He travels on, a solitary Man; His age has no companion.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lii. He did not know how solitary he was until little Rawdon was gone.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xiv. He foresaw himself wandering away solitary in pursuit of some unknown fortune.
absol. 1560. Bible (Geneva), Psalm lxviii. 6. God maketh the solitarie to dwell in families.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., ix. 287. When the solitary, whose hearts are shrivelling, are not set in families!
b. Keeping apart or aloof from society; avoiding the company of others; living alone.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 507. Solitary he was, and euer alone.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVIII. 7. Þer were suche eremites Solitarie by hem-self and in here selles lyueden.
c. 1420. Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 923. Contemplatyf peple that desyre to be Solytary seruauntes vnto God alone.
c. 1440. Alph. Tales, 477. I saw Saynt Theon sparrid in a cell, solitarie, as it was sayd, xxxti yere.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., 384. There are some so solytary that woulde never be visited.
1592. T. Nashe, P. Penilesse (ed. 2), 9. Some thinke to be counted rare Politicians and Statesmen, by beeing solitary.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. I. v. 16. We call any man Melancholy, that is dull,… ill-disposed, solitary.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 461. Those rare and solitarie, these in flocks Pasturing at once.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 948. The solitary saint Walks forth to meditate at even tide.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., xiv. 286. The solitary man is as speechless as the lower animals.
transf. 1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Solitariness,… a solitary Humour.
c. Standing alone or by itself; not accompanied or paralleled in any way.
a. 1633. J. Austin, Medit. (1635), 263. All three are solitarie. The Guide is but one; the Traveller, one; the Way, one.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 139. Who … with solitarie hand … Unaided could have finisht thee.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 75, ¶ 1. The result, not of solitary conjecture, but of practice and experience.
1806. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, I. Introd. 7. In disputation, the argument cumulative … is admitted to be at least as pressing as the argument solitary.
1850. W. R. Williams, Relig. Progr. (1854), ii. 40. Unbelief does not dwell alone, a solitary and sterile sin.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, iv. Any the least and solitariest fact in our natural history.
d. With a, one, etc.: Single; sole.
1742. Gray, Spring, 44. Poor moralist! and what art thou? A solitary fly.
1769. Junius Lett., xxvii. (1788), 150. He gives but seven solitary lines to the only subject which can deserve his attention.
1802. Gouvr. Morris, Writ. (1832), III. 160. I believe it is a solitary instance.
1830. Cruikshank, Man in Black, i. Not a sous have I in the world besides that solitary five franc piece.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 49. With one solitary exception the nebular hypothesis explains all.
2. Of places: Marked by solitude; remote, unfrequented, secluded, lonely.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. pr. iii. (1868), 10. Whi art þou comen in to þis solitarie place of myn exil. Ibid. (c. 1393), Envoy to Scogan, 46. I am … Forgete in solitarie wildirnes.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 36. That neythyr I, ner Seynt Felycyte In solytarye place lengere lefth be.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xxv. 72. She sawe my mother … in a soletary place.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Rich. III., 22. He sodaynly turned into a solitary wood next adioyning.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 269. On the north side whereof standeth solitarie a very faire Chappell.
1687. T. Brown, Saints in Uproar, Wks. 1730, I. 81. We retir’d into a wood, and in this wood found out a most solitary cave.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 87. They keep chiefly in the most solitary and inaccessible places.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 534. They sent an embassy to a solitary retreat on the shores of Lake Leman.
1873. W. Black, Pr. Thule, 4. He drove down the hill to the solitary little inn.
3. Characterized by the absence of all companionship or society: a. Of actions.
1382. Wyclif, Ps. Heading, The boc begynneth of ympnes and solitarie spechis of the profete Dauyd, of Cryst.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., II. (1892), l. 443. I was upon point of going abroad to steal a solitary walk.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 632. Satan … toward the Gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight.
1714. Wheatley, Bk. Com. Prayer (ed. 2), vi. § 29. To prevent the Solitary Masses which had been introduc’d by the Church of Rome.
1785. Reid, Intell. Powers, I. viii. 244. Some operations of our minds, from their very nature, are solitary.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. ii. 281. The solitary game is so denominated because it is played by one person only.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 48. A long solitary ride is hardly to be recommended.
1896. Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, iv. (1897), 118–9. The value of solitary scouting does not seem to be sufficiently realized among us nowadays.
b. Of life or conditions.
1451. Capgrave, Life St. Aug., 38. Foloweris of holy faderis whech lyued in solitarie lif.
c. 1491. Chast. Goddes Chyld., 42. Uneth there were ony that mighte abyde in solitarye liuynge.
1538. Starkey, England, II. ii. 189. In the wych … they schold more profyt … then our monkys haue downe in grete processe of tyme in theyr solytary lyfe.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 16. In respect that it is solitary, I like it verie well: but in respect that it is priuate, it is a very vild life.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VI. 1038. Him fair Lavinia … Shall breed in groves, to lead a solitary life.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. v. Wks. 1874, I. 95. Nothing which we at present see would lead us to the thought of a solitary unactive state hereafter.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XI. 98. Seated in solitary pomp.
1817. Sir F. Burdett, in Parl. Deb., 1858. It was much worse to stand in hourly danger of solitary confinement at the caprice or malice of a Minister of State.
1845. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 501. The ideas which are generally attached to the term ‘solitary confinement.’
Comb. 1828. Cunningham, N. S. Wales, II. 298. All jails have solitary-punishment cells.
c. ellipt. = Solitary confinement.
1854. Dickens, Hard Times, v. A. B.,… committed for eighteen months’ solitary.
4. Zool. In names of various insects, birds, etc., which live alone or in pairs only, as solitary bee, cuckoo, dodo, etc.
1830. Insect Transformations, 50. A small *solitary bee, (Chelostoma florisomne?) not so large as the domestic fly.
1840. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 599. The Solitary Bees have never more than the two ordinary kinds of individuals, males and females.
1881. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 367. The Solitary Bees … form the remainder of the family.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. I. 84. *Solitary Cuckow.
1785. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, III. I. 3. *Solitary Dodo … is a large bird.
1829. Griffith, trans. Cuvier, VIII. 446. All those monstrous birds called … Dodo, Solitary Dodo, and Nazarene Dodo.
1810. A. Wilson, Amer. Ornith., II. 143. *Solitary Flycatcher, Muscicapa solitaria.
1831. Audubon, Ornith. Biog., I. 147. The Solitary Fly-catcher, or Vireo, Vireo solitarius.
1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 333. V[ireo] solitarius.… *Solitary Greenlet.
1787. Latham, Suppl. Gen. Syn. Birds, I. 65. *Solitary Parrot. Size of a Starling.
1813. A. Wilson, Amer. Ornith., VII. 53. *Solitary Sandpiper, Tringa solitaria.
1839. Audubon, Ornith. Biog., V. 583. Solitary Sandpiper, Totanus Chloropygius.
1843. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, II. 597. Scolopax major, *Solitary Snipe.
1887. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 202/2. The Double or Solitary Snipe of English sportsmen,… a larger species.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, VII. lxii. 892. The *solitarie sparrow is by nature given to be melancholike.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., II. II. i. xviii. 191. The solitary Sparrow … is of the bigness of a Blackbird.
1743. G. Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, I. 18.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 259. *Solitary Tattler,… a shy, quiet inhabitant of wet woods. Ibid. (1884), 639. Rhyacophilus solitarius, Solitary Tattler.
1783. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, II. I. 52. *Solitary Thrush … frequents mountains and rocky places.
1813. Montagu, Ornith., Suppl. s.v., Solitary Thrush, Turdus solitarius. [Cf. Rennie’s ed. (1831) 56–8.]
1876–82. Newton, Yarrell’s Brit. Birds, II. 242, note. The real ‘Solitary Thrush,’ Monticola cyanus.
1831. Audubon, Ornith. Biog., I. 147. The *Solitary … Vireo, Vireo solitarius.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 121. Blue-headed, or Solitary Vireo.
1830. Insect Transformations, 54. Their most formidable enemy is a *solitary wasp (Cerceris ornata).
1896. Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., VI. 40. Of the typical solitary wasps (Masaridæ) … but little is known.
1730. Bailey (fol.), *Solitary-Worm, a Worm in the Intestines, or … in the Pylorus.
5. Bot. Of parts or of plants: Growing singly or separately; not forming clusters or masses.
(a) 1796. Withering, Brit. Pl., I. 232. Seeds solitary, compressed. Ibid., III. 737. Flowers solitary, terminating.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 420. Bearing … flowers in a peculiar spike, which is either solitary or double.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 30. They [sc. the bracts] are solitary, or in pairs, or multiplicate.
1880. Bessey, Botany, 428. Flowers solitary in the axils of the leaves—e. g., Vinca, Solitary Axillary. Ibid., 429. Solitary Terminal.
Comb. 1866. Treas. Bot., 910/1. Solitary-flowered axillary peduncles.
(b) 1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 159. The mushrooms are found solitary or in small patches.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 45. Plants of this kind are called solitary, while those which grow in immense masses are said to be social.
6. Of ascidians: Simple; not compound.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 353/2. This metamorphosis was observed … both in a solitary and compound Ascidian.
7. Anat. Single, separate; not multiple.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 796. The ‘solitary bundle’ or ascending vago-glosso-pharyngeal root.
1905. Rolleston, Dis. Liver, 124. Ten solitary abscesses of the liver.
Hence † Solitary v., to seclude. Obs.
1581. G. Pettie, trans. Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., I. (1586), 9. To reape the fruits of those labours, it behoueth him to solitarie himselfe from sinne.
