solitaires

Noun

solitaire (countable and uncountable, plural solitaires)

1. A person who lives alone; a recluse or hermit.
   • […] he really wishes he had never beheld you, nor yours. You have spoiled him for a solitaire, and a book, all the days of his life; and put him into such a condition, that he thinks of nothing, and enquires of nothing but after a person who has nothing to say to him, and has left him for ever […]1722-1723, Alexander Pope, letter to a lady

   Synonyms:

   hermit

2. (board games) A game for one person, played on a board with pegs or balls, in which the object is, beginning with all the places filled except one, to remove all but one of the pieces by "jumping", as in draughts.
   • The early French solitaire boards were marked with thirty-seven holes instead of the modern board's thirty-three; and the problems were more difficult.1979, R. C. Bell, Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, revised edition, New York: Dover Publications, →ISBN, page 100
3. (Canada, US) Any of various card games that can be played by one person.
   • You like to sit high on a hill / Count the daisies in the field / It's your own way of playing solitaire / You won't answer no question / Or say where you've been / The last thing you think you need is a friend1979, Ashford & Simpson, “Stay Free”, in Stay Free (album)

   Synonyms:

   patience

4. One of several American species of bird in the genus Myadestes in the thrush family.
5. A single gem, usually a diamond, mounted in a piece of jewellery by itself.
   • The Times reported ‘two pendant earrings formed of diamond solitaires of great splendor, supporting pear-shaped pearls of proportionate value, capped with brilliants.[…]’2006, Clare Phillips, editor, Bejewelled by Tiffany, 1837–1987, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 102
6. (obsolete) A black neck ribbon worn with a bag wig in the 18th century.
   • The fellow wears a ſolitaire, uſes paint, and takes rappee with all the grimace of a French marquis.1771, [Tobias Smollett], The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 88

See all 7 meanings of solitaire