seclude
Americanverb (used with object)
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to place in or withdraw into solitude; remove from social contact and activity, etc.
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to isolate; shut off; keep apart.
They secluded the garden from the rest of the property.
verb
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to remove from contact with others
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to shut off or screen from view
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of seclude
1425–75; late Middle English < Latin sēclūdere, equivalent to sē- se- + -clūdere, combining form of claudere to close
Explanation
When you seclude someone, you separate them from other people. A Buddhist monk might seclude himself in a remote place to meditate alone for several weeks. Most people use the verb seclude to talk about shutting themselves away from society or keeping themselves separate from others. An eccentric family might seclude itself from the neighbors, for example. The root is Latin, secludere, which means "shut off or confine," from se, "apart" and cludere, "to shut." Originally, seclude was used to mean "to enclose or confine," and by the 1620s it also meant "to keep from public view."
Vocabulary lists containing seclude
Case Closed: Clud, Clus
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se (apart)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“I realised that if I was able to seclude myself and rest, the gentle high would progress into a dreamlike state where I would experience visions,” she writes in Period Power.
From The Guardian ● May 29, 2019
At one point, he suggests that to help make up her mind she go away from London, where they live, and seclude herself in a cottage in Wales.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 22, 2018
She suggested he seclude himself at Yaddo, the artists’ colony in upstate New York.
From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2017
It sells anonymous offshore companies that help the owners seclude their business dealings.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2017
Still, he did not seclude himself with his sorrow: the professor of Modern Languages at Harvard could hardly do that.
From A Day With Longfellow by Anonymous
The fatal collision occurred about five minutes later on the secluded Perthshire road near the junction with Gowrie Farm.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
In a secluded area of La Esperanza cemetery in La Guaira, gravediggers buried more than 150 bodies still unidentified since the earthquakes, AFP journalists saw.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
“Middlemarch” or “Moby-Dick” may be such a secluded summer spot for a reader.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
The car pulls into a secluded, wooded area.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
When they were finished, Thomas headed back to the secluded place where he’d slept the night before, in the corner behind the Deadheads.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
My other concern is people are secluding their lives with people who either think like them or more extreme forms of it.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2023
“Yep, I’m watching Mr. Eldridge,” one scout says on the phone before secluding himself from earshot.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2023
Its next resident will find a private dock, tall trees secluding the pool and spa, and “an effortless, single level indoor/outdoor living experience.”
From Seattle Times ● May 9, 2022
Others with in-the-clear test results and drippy noses say they are still secluding or masking even at home until the sneezing stops — just in case.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2021
Anne, disdaining all dissimulation, wept openly, and, secluding herself from the gayeties of the court, surrendered herself to grief.
From Louis XIV. Makers of History Series by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
