Secluding

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of withdrawing oneself or another from social interaction for the purpose of privacy or tranquility
2. The practice of placing someone or something away from others to encourage reflection or independence
3. The act of deliberately removing oneself from company to enjoy peace and quiet ; the process of keeping someone or something apart from others to foster contemplation or autonomy

Etymology: "Secluding" is the present participle of "seclude," a verb that came into English from Latin "secludere," meaning "to shut off" or "to keep apart." The Latin verb is built from "se-," meaning "apart," and "claudere," "to close" or "to shut," the same root that gives English "close," "include," and "conclude." Shutting something away is literally what the root describes: a door or gate closed off so that what lies behind it cannot be reached. English took the verb directly from Latin, so its earliest uses keep that physical sense of shutting something off. Over time the meaning moved from closing a space to separating a person, so that "to seclude" came to mean withdrawing someone, or oneself, from company and contact. Its participle "secluding" therefore describes the act of keeping apart: the doors being shut, or the person being set aside from others.

Synonyms: isolating, shutting, removing, separating, detaching

Antonyms: including, inviting, connecting, aggregating, joining