seclude

English

Etymology

From Latin secludo.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /səˈkluːd/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
    • Rhymes: -uːd

Verb

seclude (third-person singular simple present secludes, present participle secluding, simple past and past participle secluded)

  1. (transitive, chiefly reflexive) To shut off or keep apart, as from company, society, etc.; withdraw (oneself) from society or into solitude.
    • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 31, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
      At one moment she was absolutely indifferent to the observation of all the world, at another she would seclude herself from it for ever, and at a third could resist it with energy.
    • 1922, Lafcadio Hearn, Creole Sketches/Old-Fashioned Houses:
      If he wishes to enjoy an hour in his private study, it is not pleasant to be obliged all the time to listen to noises in the next room, even if made by his own servants or his own children. For members of a family themselves require at times to seclude themselves from other members of the family; — there are business matters to be talked of; there are projects which children or servants should not hear; there are numberless things which the heads of a household wish to discuss by themselves.
  2. (transitive) To shut or keep out; exclude; preclude.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

This page is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.