solitaire

plural solitaires

1. countableuncountableA person who lives alone; a recluse or hermit.

   1 more example

   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 thinks of nothing, and enquires of nothing but after a person who has nothing to say to him, and has left him for ever […]

   Synonyms: hermit

2. countableuncountableboard gamesA 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, revised edition, New York: Dover Publications, →ISBN, page 100

3. CanadaUScountableuncountablecard gamesAny of various card games that can be played by one person.

   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 February 10, Winnie Hu, “Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer”, in The New York Times

   2 more examples

   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, Ashford & Simpson, “Stay Free”, in Stay Free (album)

   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 required, no costly equipment to badger my parents into buying. I could play whenever and wherever I wanted. All I needed was a deck of cards.

   2013 February 23, Francine Prose, “Solitaire: Me vs. Me”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: patience

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

   Synonyms: Réunion ibis

6. countableuncountableOne of several American species of bird in the genus Myadestes in the thrush family.
7. countableuncountablejewelryA 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 Tiffany, 1837–1987, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 102

8. countableobsoleteuncountableA 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. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 88

comparative more solitaire · superlative most solitaire

1. Living or being alone; solitary.