Thoreau

American

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

noun

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

Thoreau British

/ ˈθɔːrəʊ, θɔːˈrəʊ /

noun

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

"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

Other Word Forms

Thoreauvian

adjective

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.

Thoreau held a deep suspicion of government and all hierarchies, including armies and corporations.

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax, objecting to slavery and the Mexican War.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 6, 2026

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 • Dec. 5, 2025

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

From Salon • Apr. 20, 2025

When I get to English class, Mr. Wise gives us a villainous smile that can only mean he’s finished grading our short essay quizzes on Thoreau.

From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023