solitaire

Living or being alone; solitary.

Adjective

  1. Living or being alone; solitary.

Origin

Borrowed from French solitaire, ultimately from Latin sōlitārius. Doublet of solitary.

Forms

more solitaire most solitaire

Related

solitary

Noun

  1. A person who lives alone; a recluse or hermit.
    • 1722-1723, Alexander Pope, letter to a lady […] he really wishes he had never beheld you, nor yours. You have spoiled him for a solitaire, and a book, all the days of his life; and put him into such a condition, that he...

    Synonyms: hermit

  2. A game for one person, played on a board with pegs or balls, in which the object is, beginning with all the places filled except one, to remove all but one of the pieces by "jumping", as in draughts.
    • The early French solitaire boards were marked with thirty-seven holes instead of the modern board's thirty-three; and the problems were more difficult. - 1979, R. C. Bell, Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations,...
  3. Any of various card games that can be played by one person.
    • You like to sit high on a hill / Count the daisies in the field / It's your own way of playing solitaire / You won't answer no question / Or say where you've been / The last thing you think you need is a friend - 1979,...
    • Mr. Greenwood said yesterday that he always finished his work in a timely fashion, and that he played solitaire only when there was nothing else left to do, usually a few times a week or during lunch breaks. - 2006...
    • I learned to play solitaire as a child. Its advantages over other games were obvious, even then. No need to persuade a friend to play or explain the boring rules, no hard feelings when someone won or lost, no lessons...

    Synonyms: patience

  4. Ellipsis of Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), an extinct bird related to the dodo.
  5. Ellipsis of Réunion solitaire (Raphus solitarius, now Threskiornis solitarius), an extinct bird formerly believed to be related to the dodo.

    Synonyms: Réunion ibis

  6. One of several American species of bird in the genus Myadestes in the thrush family.
  7. A single gem, usually a diamond, mounted in a piece of jewellery by itself.
    • The Times reported ‘two pendant earrings formed of diamond solitaires of great splendor, supporting pear-shaped pearls of proportionate value, capped with brilliants.[…]’ - 2006, Clare Phillips, editor, Bejewelled by...
  8. A black neck ribbon worn with a bag wig in the 18th century.
    • The fellow wears a ſolitaire, uſes paint, and takes rappee with all the grimace of a French marquis. - 1771, [Tobias Smollett], The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B....

Forms

solitaires

Derived

Andean solitaire mahjong solitaire spider solitaire Townsend's solitaire