Thoreau

American  

[thuh-roh, thawr-oh, thohr-oh] / θəˈroʊ, ˈθɔr oʊ, ˈθoʊr oʊ /

noun

1. Henry David, 1817–62, U.S. naturalist and author.

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Thoreau British  

/ ˈθɔːrəʊ, θɔːˈrəʊ /

noun

1. Henry David. 1817–62, US writer, noted esp for Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), an account of his experiment in living in solitude. A powerful social critic, his essay Civil Disobedience (1849) influenced such dissenters as Gandhi

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Other Word Forms

• Thoreauvian adjective

Example Sentences

Perhaps the most eloquent is the naturalist and essayist Henry David Thoreau, who wrote “man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can do without.”

From The Wall Street Journal

He finds New England “richer in wildlife than when Henry Thoreau was writing Walden one hundred fifty years ago.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Second, at their best — in the spirit of Henry David Thoreau’s objection to slavery and the Mexican-American War in his essay “Civil Disobedience” — a protest can provide a shining moral clarity.

From Salon

For e.e. cummings, like earlier American transcendentalist poets like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, paying attention was everything.

From Salon

Perhaps a different, better book might have been found had Norlin followed Thoreau’s advice and simplified.

From Los Angeles Times