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) To shut off or keep apart, as from company, society, etc.; withdraw (oneself) from society or into solitude.
   • 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.

Derived terms

• secluded
• secludedly

Related terms

• seclusion
• seclusive

References

• “seclude”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Culdees, cedules, scedule