: marked by withdrawal from society : solitary
: a person who leads a secluded or solitary life
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Greta Garbo and Howard Hughes were two of the most famously reclusive celebrities of modern times. She had been a great international star, called the most beautiful woman in the world; he had been an aircraft manufacturer and film producer, with one of the greatest fortunes in the world. It seems that Garbo's reclusiveness resulted from her desire to leave her public with only the youthful image of her face. Hughes was terrified of germs, though that was the least of his problems.
Examples of recluse in a Sentence
Noun
My neighbor is a recluse—I only see him about once a year.
he was sick of cities and crowds, so he decided to go live by himself in the woods as a recluse
Recent Examples on the Web
Shannon Doyne, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
The late polymath and famously eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes was a businessman, pilot, aerospace engineer, investor, and philanthropist turned recluse who was once the richest man in the world.
—Emma Reynolds, Robb Report, 7 Jan. 2025
Resolved to continue on her trip for the sake of her son, Sara finds herself in a perilous situation, and is forced to lean on the elusive Issac Reed (Taylor Kitsch), a gruff recluse who lives on the outskirts of Ft. Bridger.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 9 Jan. 2025
The show’s tedious opening hours depict him as a recluse who has hired a collection of incompetent men to find the games’ slap-happy recruiter (Gong Yoo).
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 26 Dec. 2024
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Noun
My fourth-grade class trooped through the woods and used wax paper to rub the recluse Johann Wilhelm Stolting’s tombstone.
—Shannon Doyne, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
The late polymath and famously eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes was a businessman, pilot, aerospace engineer, investor, and philanthropist turned recluse who was once the richest man in the world.
—Emma Reynolds, Robb Report, 7 Jan. 2025
Resolved to continue on her trip for the sake of her son, Sara finds herself in a perilous situation, and is forced to lean on the elusive Issac Reed (Taylor Kitsch), a gruff recluse who lives on the outskirts of Ft. Bridger.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 9 Jan. 2025
The show’s tedious opening hours depict him as a recluse who has hired a collection of incompetent men to find the games’ slap-happy recruiter (Gong Yoo).
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 26 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for recluse
Dictionary Entries Near recluse
Cite this Entry
“Recluse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recluse. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
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