lonely

Adjective

lonely (comparative lonelier, superlative loneliest)

1. Unhappy due to feeling isolated from contact with other people.
   • At last
     My love has come along
     My lonely days are over
     And life is like a song1941, “At Last”, Mack Gordon, Harry Warren (music), performed by Glenn Miller, Ray Eberle (vocals), and Pat Friday (vocals)
   • 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.1956, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley
2. Unfrequented by people; desolate.
   • 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...1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 2
   • […] 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.1970, Wilfrido D. Nolledo, chapter 19, in But for the Lovers, Dalkey Archive Press, page 165

   Synonyms:

   desolate, desert, empty, unpeopled, unpopulated

3. Without companions; solitary.
   • By a lone wall a lonelier column rears.1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXV

   Synonyms:

   solitary, alone, unaccompanied