Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person who withdraws from the world to live in seclusion and often in solitude.
- adjective Withdrawn from the world; reclusive.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To shut up; seclude; withdraw from intercourse.
- Shut up or apart from the world; retired from public notice; sequestered; solitary; existing or passed in a solitary state: as, a recluse monk or hermit; a recluse life.
- noun A person who withdraws from the world to spend his days in seclusion and meditation; specifically, a member of a religious community who is voluntarily immured for life in a single cell.
- noun A place of seclusion; a retired or quiet situation; a hermitage, convent, or the like.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To shut up; to seclude.
- noun A person who lives in seclusion from intercourse with the world, as a hermit or monk; specifically, one of a class of secluded devotees who live in single cells, usually attached to monasteries.
- noun obsolete The place where a recluse dwells.
- adjective Shut up, sequestered; retired from the world or from public notice; solitary; living apart
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Sequestered ;secluded ,isolated . - adjective
Hidden ,secret . - noun A person who lives in self-imposed isolation or seclusion from the world, especially for religious purposes; a
hermit . - noun obsolete The place where a recluse dwells; a place of isolation or seclusion.
- noun US A
brown recluse spider. - verb obsolete To
shut ; toseclude .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective withdrawn from society; seeking solitude
- noun one who lives in solitude
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In He Who Fears the Wolf (Harcourt), the latest installment of this Norwegian series to be published in America, a young schizophrenic escapes from a mental institution and heads for the forest, where an old recluse is later found murdered.
Touch of Evil 2006
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In He Who Fears the Wolf (Harcourt), the latest installment of this Norwegian series to be published in America, a young schizophrenic escapes from a mental institution and heads for the forest, where an old recluse is later found murdered.
Touch of Evil 2006
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It was not until after our arrival at Tampico that I had the mortification to discover that the interesting creature, the charming recluse, is seventy-eight, and has just buried her seventh husband!
Life in Mexico, During a Residence of Two Years in That Country Frances Erskine Inglis 1843
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The Duchess of Kent has withdrawn from public life to such an extent that she is often described as a recluse, but her son Lord Nicholas Windsor is determined to speak out over causes that he believes in.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010
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The Duchess of Kent has withdrawn from public life to such an extent that she is often described as a recluse, but her son Lord Nicholas Windsor is determined to speak out over causes that he believes in.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010
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No need to be "disturbed", not sure why I used the word recluse, but you're right it was the wrong term to use.
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A sidekick, the antagonist, whatever - if they’re not the central focus of the story, they must still play an important role (the reporter later discovers the enigmatic recluse is really a costumed vigilante, and now must decide what to do with that knowledge).
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Joon-ho Bong's story of a recluse is the best of the three by some lengths.
Kenneth Hite's Journal princeofcairo 2008
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One of the things about it, it's called a recluse spider because it typically comes out in the dark or at night.
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Without a woman, man's life was pitiful — the life of the recluse was a proof of that.
NOVELS-NOVELS 2003
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