recluse

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: rec=luse

CIDE DICTIONARY

recluse, a. [F. reclus, L. reclusus, from recludere, reclusum, to unclose, open, in LL., to shut up. See Close.].

 Shut up, sequestered; retired from the world or from public notice; solitary; living apart; as, a recluse monk or hermit; a recluse life  [1913 Webster]
"In meditation deep, recluse
From human converse."  [1913 Webster]

recluse, n. [F. reclus, LL. reclusus. See Recluse, a.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  The place where a recluse dwells.  Foxe.  [1913 Webster]

recluse, v. t. 

 To shut up; to seclude.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

recluse, n. & adj.
--n. a person given to or living in seclusion or isolation, esp. as a religious discipline; a hermit.
--adj. favouring seclusion; solitary.

Derivative

reclusion n. reclusive adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF reclus recluse past part. of reclure f. L recludere reclus- (as RE-, claudere shut)

THESAURUS

recluse

Diogenes, Hieronymian, Hieronymite, Timon of Athens, anchoress, anchorite, anchoritic, ascetic, bedridden invalid, cenobite, character, cloistered, cloistered monk, closet cynic, crackpot, crank, desert fathers, desert saints, domestic, eccentric, eremite, eremitic, erratic, flake, freak, hermetic, hermit, hermitess, hermitic, hermitish, homebody, invalid, isolationist, kook, loner, marabout, monk, nonconformist, nun, nut, oddball, outcast, pariah, pillar saint, pillarist, screwball, secluse, seclusionist, seclusive, sequestered, shut in, shut up, shut-in, solitaire, solitary, solitudinarian, stay-at-home, strange duck, stylite, weirdo

ROGET THESAURUS

recluse

Exclusion

N exclusion, nonadmission, omission, exception, rejection, repudiation, exile, noninclusion, preclusion, prohibition, separation, segregation, seposition, elimination, expulsion, cofferdam, excluding, exclusive, excluded, unrecounted, not included in, inadmissible, exclusive of, barring, except, with the exception of, save, bating, exclusion, seclusion, exclusion, seclusion, privacy, retirement, reclusion, recess, snugness, delitescence, rustication, rus in urbe, solitude, solitariness, isolation, loneliness, estrangement from the world, voluntary exile, aloofness, cell, hermitage, convent, sanctum sanctorum, depopulation, desertion, desolation, wilderness, howling wilderness, rotten borough, Old Sarum, exclusion, excommunication, banishment, exile, ostracism, proscription, cut, cut direct, dead cut, inhospitality, inhospitableness, dissociability, domesticity, Darby and Joan, recluse, hermit, eremite, cenobite, anchoret, anchorite, Simon Stylites, troglodyte, Timon of Athens, Santon, solitaire, ruralist, disciple of Zimmermann, closet cynic, Diogenes, outcast, Pariah, castaway, pilgarlic, wastrel, foundling, wilding, secluded, sequestered, retired, delitescent, private, bye, out of the world, out of the way, the world forgetting by the world forgot, snug, domestic, stay-at-home, unsociable, unsocial, dissocial, inhospitable, cynical, inconversable, unclubbable, sauvage, troglodytic, solitary, lonely, lonesome, isolated, single, estranged, unfrequented, uninhabitable, uninhabited, tenantless, abandoned, deserted, deserted in one's utmost need, unfriended, kithless, friendless, homeless, lorn, forlorn, desolate, unvisited, unintroduced, uninvited, unwelcome, under a cloud, left to shift for oneself, derelict, outcast, banished, noli me tangere, among them but not of them, and homeless near a thousand homes I stood, far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, makes a solitude and calls it peace, magna civitas magna solitudo, never less alone than when alone, O sacred solitude! divine retreat!.