Definition of "solitaire" in English

noun

1. A person who lives alone; a recluse or hermit.

   • 1722-1723, Alexander Pope, letter to a lady […] 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 […]

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.

3. (card games, chiefly US) Any of various card games that can be played by one person.

4. Ellipsis of Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), an extinct bird related to the dodo.

5. Ellipsis of Réunion solitaire (Raphus solitarius, now Threskiornis solitarius), an extinct bird formerly believed to be related to the dodo.

6. One of several American species of bird in the genus Myadestes in the thrush family.

7. (jewelry) A single gem, usually a diamond, mounted in a piece of jewellery by itself.

8. (obsolete) A black neck ribbon worn with a bag wig in the 18th century.

adjective

1. Living or being alone; solitary.