Library / English Dictionary

SECLUDE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Keep away from others

Example:

He sequestered himself in his study to write a book

Synonyms:

seclude; sequester; sequestrate; withdraw

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "seclude" is one way to...):

insulate; isolate (place or set apart)

Verb group:

adjourn; retire; withdraw (break from a meeting or gathering)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "seclude"):

lose (withdraw, as from reality)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

seclusion (the act of secluding yourself from others)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The quaint old garden had sheltered many pairs of lovers, and seemed expressly made for them, so sunny and secluded was it, with nothing but the tower to overlook them, and the wide lake to carry away the echo of their words, as it rippled by below.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Study had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow-creatures, and rendered me unsocial; but Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart; he again taught me to love the aspect of nature, and the cheerful faces of children.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Elinor, who foresaw a fairer opening for the point she had in view, in such a party as this was likely to be, more at liberty among themselves under the tranquil and well-bred direction of Lady Middleton than when her husband united them together in one noisy purpose, immediately accepted the invitation; Margaret, with her mother's permission, was equally compliant, and Marianne, though always unwilling to join any of their parties, was persuaded by her mother, who could not bear to have her seclude herself from any chance of amusement, to go likewise.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

A crime of mysterious character was committed last night at 16, Godolphin Street, one of the old-fashioned and secluded rows of eighteenth century houses which lie between the river and the Abbey, almost in the shadow of the great Tower of the Houses of Parliament.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

How they affected my aunt, nobody knew; for immediately upon the separation, she took her maiden name again, bought a cottage in a hamlet on the sea-coast a long way off, established herself there as a single woman with one servant, and was understood to live secluded, ever afterwards, in an inflexible retirement.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

While I was overcome by these feelings, I left the spot where I had committed the murder, and seeking a more secluded hiding-place, I entered a barn which had appeared to me to be empty.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)