lonely
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈləʊnli/
ipa: /ˈloʊnli/
ipa: /ˈləʉnli/
ipa: /ˈlɐʉnli/
note: Indic, Caribbean
ipa: /ˈloːnli/
ipa: /ˈlœʊnli/
rhymes: -əʊnli
Forms: form: lonelier
form: loneliest
Etymology: From lone + -ly, or from an apheretic shortening of alonely. See lone.
Senses: examples: text: At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
ref: 1941, “At Last”, Mack Gordon, Harry Warren (music), performed by Glenn Miller, Ray Eberle (vocals), and Pat Friday (vocals):
text: Well, since my baby left me,
Well, I found a new place to dwell.
Well, it's down at the end of Lonely Street
At Heartbreak Hotel.
Where I'll be, I'll be so lonely, baby
Well, I'm so lonely
I'll be so lonely, I could die.
ref: 1956, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:
text: LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there’s a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle.
ref: 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 13, in On the Road, Penguin, published 1976, →OCLC, part 1, page 86:
text: You were lonely for a man
I said, "Take me as I am"
'Cause you might enjoy some madness for a while
ref: 1980 March 7, Billy Joel, “You May Be Right”, in Glass Houses:
text: From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.
ref: 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
glosses: Unhappy due to feeling isolated from contact with other people.
examples: text: Only to those to whom in lonely passes in the night the gods have spoken, leaning through the stars, to those that have heard the voices of the gods above the morning or seen Their faces bending above the sea, only to those hath it been given to see Sardathrion, to stand where her pinnacles gathered together in the night fresh from the dreams of gods.
ref: 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 2:
text: […] San Sebastian Church was desolate in the courtyard; emptier, lonelier inside with its pews stretched out like fallen pylons varnished by dolorous residue. From each candlelit nook stared in stony despair one after another saint, regal and rueful: proffering forgiveness, peace, a todo.
ref: 1970, Wilfrido D. Nolledo, chapter 19, in But for the Lovers, Dalkey Archive Press, page 165:
glosses: Unfrequented by people; desolate.
raw_tags: of a place or time
examples: text: By a lone wall a lonelier column rears.
ref: 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXV:
glosses: Without companions; solitary.
raw_tags: of a person
Synonyms: sense: dejected
word: lonesome
sense: unfrequented by people
word: desolate
sense: unfrequented by people
word: desert
sense: unfrequented by people
word: empty
sense: unfrequented by people
word: unpeopled
sense: unfrequented by people
word: unpopulated
sense: without companions
word: solitary
sense: without companions
word: alone
sense: without companions
word: unaccompanied
Derived terms: it's lonely at the top
lonelihood
lonelily
lonely-heart
lonely-hearted
lonelyhearted
lonely-hearts
nonlonely
plough a lonely furrow
unlonely
Related terms: lone
loneliness