lonely

From lone +‎ -ly, or from an apheretic shortening of alonely. See lone.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊn.li/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈloʊn.li/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

lonely (comparative lonelier, superlative loneliest)

1. Unhappy due to feeling isolated from contact with other people.
   • 1941, “At Last”, Mack Gordon, Harry Warren (music), performed by Glenn Miller, Ray Eberle (vocals), and Pat Friday (vocals):

     At last
     My love has come along
     My lonely days are over
     And life is like a song

   • 1956, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:

     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.

   • 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 13, in On the Road, Penguin, published 1976, →OCLC, part 1, page 86:

     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.

   • 1980 March 7, Billy Joel, “You May Be Right”, in Glass Houses‎^[1]:

     You were lonely for a man
     I said, "Take me as I am"
     'Cause you might enjoy some madness for a while

   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

     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.

2. (of a place or time) Unfrequented by people; desolate.
   • 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods‎^[2], London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 2:

     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.

   • 1970, Wilfrido D. Nolledo, chapter 19, in But for the Lovers, Dalkey Archive Press, page 165:

     […] 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.

3. (of a person) Without companions; solitary.
   • 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXV:

     By a lone wall a lonelier column rears.

• (dejected): lonesome
• (unfrequented by people): desolate, desert, empty, unpeopled, unpopulated
• (without companions): solitary, alone, unaccompanied

• lone
• loneliness

• Nolley