loner
[loh-ner]
- a person who is or prefers to be alone, especially one who avoids the company of others: He was always a loner—no one knew him well.
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Origin of loner
lone
[lohn]
- being alone; without company or accompaniment; solitary; unaccompanied: a lone traveler.
- standing by itself or apart; isolated: a lone house in the valley.
- sole; single; only: That company constitutes our lone competitor in the field.
- unfrequented.
- without companionship; lonesome; lonely.
- unmarried or widowed.
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Origin of lone
Synonyms
See more synonyms for lone on Thesaurus.com2. separate, separated, secluded.
Synonym study
1. See alone.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for loner
Contemporary Examples
Fatherless and emotionally needy, du Pont was a loner who sought companionship and adoration—usually at great financial cost.
Nor was Oswald an irrational, discontented Dostoyevskian loner, as some depicted him.
The missing leg is only the most obvious sign that Strike is damaged goods, a loner wounded by life long before he went overseas.
She remained a loner in every sense of the word for most of her political career.
Marlowe was a loner, a private eye in a one-man operation in Los Angeles during the '30s, '40s, and '50s.
John Banville’s Terrible Idea to Write a New Novel on Raymond Chandler’s Philip MarloweMalcolm Jones
August 10, 2012
Historical Examples
It could not have been loner alight: since but little of the lard was consumed.
The MaroonMayne Reid
She hastened to the spring, but fountain and pitcher were no loner there.
It was not loner however until I saw him go into the dance and begin to drink.
He had been a loner for so many years that he found a certain inverse pleasure in following someone else.
DeathworldHarry Harrison
From yon blue heaven above us bent, The grand old gardener and his wife Smile at the claims of loner descent.
Familiar QuotationsVarious
loner
- informal a person or animal who avoids the company of others or prefers to be alone
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lone
- unaccompanied; solitary
- single or isolateda lone house
- a literary word for lonely
- unmarried or widowed
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Word Origin
C14: from the mistaken division of alone into a lone
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for loner
n.
"one who avoids company," 1946; see lone. Apparently first in U.S. baseball slang (earliest reference is to Ted Williams).
Ted is likable enough in spite of his obsession with his specialty. He is something of a "loner," and he refuses to pal around with his teammates in off hours, but in the clubhouse he does his share of the talking. ["Life" magazine, Sept. 23, 1946]
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lone
adj.
late 14c., "having no companion, solitary," shortening of alone (q.v.) by weakening of stress or else by misdivision of what is properly all one. The Lone Star in reference to "Texas" is first recorded 1843, from its flag. Lone wolf in the figurative sense is 1909, American English.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper