reclusive
/rɪˈkluːsɪv
/adjective
Avoiding the company of other people; solitary: he led a reclusive life...
- He now lives a quiet, reclusive life in rural Cheshire, with wife Christine, shunning the media spotlight.
- If that is the case, it will thrust the reclusive billionaires into a limelight they have spent years avoiding.
- The reclusive Quaker became one of the most celebrated figures in chemistry when he presented his atomic theory in 1803.
Synonyms
solitary, secluded, isolated, hermit-like, cloistered, sequestered, withdrawn, retiring, shut away;
introverted, unsociable, antisocial, misanthropic
rare seclusive, eremitic, eremitical, hermitic, anchoritic
Derivatives
reclusively
- He has at times lived reclusively on a remote private island in Fiji with a small core group of followers.
- Although they dwell reclusively within the cave system, the large reptiles were certainly no secret.
- Living reclusively in a rented cottage in nearby Nunnington, they have both withdrawn from community life.
reclusiveness
- In recent years, her own indifferent health and her dedicated nursing of her husband Jack, who died recently, encouraged Astley's natural reclusiveness.
- Whatever the nature of their reclusiveness, all of them have learnt to maintain a tightrope balance between the world, the self and their art.
- Her reclusiveness is perhaps best illustrated, if not explained, by her once stating that she most wanted to resemble those writers who, like J. D. Salinger, are known solely by their work, not their personal lives.