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

Thoreau believed slavery was morally reprehensible, and refused to pay a poll tax supporting the government that allowed it.

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

The directors take a visual essay approach, contrasting Walden Pond and its woods and the rivers Thoreau rowed with sped-up footage of our crazy modern world — which can be a little on the nose.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 30, 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

She just feels so alone, like she’s lived her whole life in “quiet desperation” as Thoreau would say, instead of sucking the marrow out of life.

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed