alone, a. and adv.
(əˈləʊn)
Forms: 3–4 al on, al one, 4 alle on, 4–5 alle one, al oon, all one, (ylone), 6– alone; north. 4 alan, 4–7 allane, 5–9 (mod. Sc.) alane.
[orig. a phraseological comb. of all adv. ‘wholly, quite,’ + one; emphasizing oneness essential or temporary, ‘wholly one, one without any companions, one by himself.’ App. not earlier than end of 13th c., and long treated as two words. Aphetized in north. dial. to lone.]
I. As an objective fact.
1. lit. Quite by oneself, unaccompanied, solitary. a. as extension of predicate.
| c 1300 Beket 59 Heo wende alone heo nuste whoderward. c 1330 Assumpcion 456 Al one I hanged on þe tree. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1777 And al a-lone his weye hathe he nome. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 120 And in a preveye place all one he lay. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. ii. 60 Good Countrymen, let me depart alone. 1611 Bible Lev. xiii. 46 He shall dwell alone. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 491 ¶2 She was left alone with him. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. 409 Apart she lived, and still she lives alone. 1845 Ford Handbk. Spain i. 43 It is almost impossible to travel alone. 1852 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith 204 It stands alone like the peak of Teneriffe. |
b. as compl. to vb. be.
| 1382 Wyclif Gen. ii. 18 It is not good man to be alone. c 1440 Gesta Rom. lxix. 262 Ve soli! Wo be to him that is alle one. 1526 Tindale Mark iv. 10 When he was alone [so 1611; Wyclif, bi hym self.] 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 10 Gif the forester is allane: he sall mak ane crosse in the earth. 1646 Howell Lett. (1650) II. 121, I am never less alone, than when I am alone. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 12 ¶1 To keep me from being alone. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. iv. iii, Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! 1851 Ruskin Mod. Paint. II. iii. ii. iii. §28 No man's soul is alone: Laocoon or Tobit, the serpent has it by the heart or the angel by the hand. |
2. fig. a. Alone of its kind; having no equal, or fellow; being the sole example; unique; sui generis. Obs. exc. as extension of 1.
| 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxxxii. 18 That thou art alone, that thy name is the Lorde. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iv. 167 All I can, is nothing, To her, whose worth, make other worthies nothing; Shee is alone. 1712 Budgell Spect. No. 404 ¶4 Tully would not stand so much alone in Oratory. |
b. Alone in action or feeling, having no sharer in one's action, or position.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 38 Cunedag was þo al one kyng, & þe kyndom to hym nom. 1382 Wyclif John viii. 16, I am not aloone, but I and the fadir that sent me [so in 1611]. 1752 J. Gill Trinity v. 97 Nor am I alone in the sense of this text. 1800 G. Trevyllion in Trevelyan Macaulay (1876) I. i. 10 The young Overseer was not alone in his scruples. 1853 Thackeray Eng. Hum. i. 32 Through life he always seems alone, somehow. Mod. You are not alone in that opinion. |
† 3. Formerly often strengthened by a pronoun prefixed, me al-one (or al me one: see one), afterw. esp. in north. dial. (like me self, my self) mine alone, my alone, my lone. Now only dial.
| c 1360 E.E.P. (1862) 119 Ful stille i stod . my self al on. 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 146 All him alane the way he tais. 1393 Gower Conf. I. 148 He made his mone Within a gardin all him one. 1533 Bellendene Livy iii. (1822) 273 Thus stude Virginia hir allane. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scotl. I. 528 At the Hunting, quhair he was him alane. 1578 in Scot. Poems 16th c. II. 206 Leif mee not All my Lone, leif mee not Thus mine allone. a 1575 Murning Maidin in Laneham's Let. (1871) Pref. 151, I yow find In this wod walkand your alone. 1588 A. King Canisius' Catech. ii. 35 b, I ame myne alane and poore. 1733 Ramsay Tea-T. Misc. (ed. 9) I. 79, I get the other to my lane. |
4. To let or leave alone: lit. to leave to himself; to leave persons or things as they are, or to their own efforts; to abstain from interfering or having to do with.
| 1366 Mandeville xxix. 294 So he let hem allone. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 827 Lat the loseles alone. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle i. i. (1859) 2 Lete me alone to do that my ryght is. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings xx. 6 Shal I go vnto Ramoth to fighte, or shal I let it alone? 1589 Pasquil's Return D ij b, Let the Court alone. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 201 Let me alone for swearing. 1611 Bible Job xiii. 13 Let me alone that I may speake. 1712 F. T. Meth. Shorthand 41 Which Persons may either follow or let alone, as they please. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xx. 211 Topsy soon made the household understand the propriety of letting her alone; and she was let alone accordingly. |
5. attrib. Said of that of which there exists no other example, or whose action is unshared in: Sole, only, unique, exclusive. Now rare.
| 1547 Homilies i. ii. ii. (1859) 22 He is the alone Mediator between God and man. 1564 Becon Common-pl. H. Script. (1844) 299 To know [thee] the alone God. 1569 Bury Wills (1850) 155 Whome I make my sole and alone executor. 1633 G. Herbert Aaron in Temple 169 Christ is my onely head, My alone onely heart and breast. 1656 Sanderson Serm. (1689) 60 Son of God and alone Saviour of the World. 1668 Howe Bless. Right. (1825) 131 Had this been the alone folly. 1873 Goulburn Pers. Relig. iii. 20 Christ is..the alone source of sanctification. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 11 The alone keystone of all sane thinking. |
6. Taken or acting by itself; of itself, without anything more. † a. preceding the n.: Solitary, isolated, unattended. Obs.
| 1663 Flagellum, O. Cromwell (1672) 103 Ascribes it..to the alone wisdome of God. 1683 J. Gadbury Pref. Sir G. Wharton's Wks., By this alone Example, the Non-conformist should learn to be obedient. 1772 J. Fletcher Log. Genev. 212 For the alone sake of Christ's atoning blood. |
b. following the n.
| 1382 Wyclif Matt. iv. 4 A man lyueth not in breed aloon [1388 oonli; so Tindale, Genev.; 1611 by bread alone]. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 67 This can not be done by the acid alone. 1757 Johnson Rambl. No. 159 ¶9 He that hopes by philosophy and contemplation alone to fortify himself against that. 1857 Buckle Civiliz. I. ii. 118 This fact alone must have produced a considerable effect. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 430 Material progress alone will not suffice. 1879 B. Taylor Germ. Lit. 51 Form, alone, gives us a waxen doll, heartless and brainless. |
† c. qualifying a possessive. Obs.
| 1611 Bible Rom. iv. 23 It was not written for his sake alone. 1683 tr. Erasmus, Moriæ Enc. 7 Plutus..at whose alone beck Religion and Civil Policy have been successively undermined and re-established. 1689 Apol. Fail. Walker's Acc. 17 These Gentlemen, whose alone Commands could qualifie Mr. Walker to plead. |
d. separated from n. and tending to become adv.
| c 1540 Pract. Cyrurg., The flesshe and bone wyl heale alone by nature. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 160 The appointment of a ruined gambler would alone have sufficed to disgust the public. 1863 Kemble Resid. Georgia 19 Whose..perfect foliage would alone render it an object of admiration. |
7. In all the prec. senses used also of a group or number: By themselves, without other companions.
| c 1440 Morte Arth. (1819) 34 To the bote they yede with oute stynte, They two allone. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. i. ii. 1 Say Lucetta (now we are alone) Would'st thou then counsaile me to fall in loue? 1824 Byron Juan ii. clxxxviii, They were alone, but not alone as they Who shut in chambers think it loneliness. |
II. As a subjective limitation.
8. With no one else in the same predicament; as distinct from any one else; only, exclusively. he alone came = he came, and no one else did. a. immed. following the n.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 138 Not to þe fader alle on, bot tille his heir. c 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 24 For never na God was bot he alan. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. ii. 10 Holi Scripture al oon ȝeueth the sufficient kunnyng. 1548 Udall etc. Erasm. Paraphr. Luke i. 69 By hym alone and onely. Ibid. ii. 30 That he alone and onely might pourge all mankinde. a 1600 King & Barker in Ritson Anc. Pop. Poetry 62 The tanner thowt, the Kyng ylone thes be. 1611 Bible Dan. x. 7, I Daniel alone saw the vision. 1729 Burkitt On N.T. Matt. xxv. 45 Man, and man alone, is the cause of his own destruction. 1788 Franklin Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 165 The citizens alone should be at the expense of it. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 11 Not of the affairs of France alone, but of all Europe. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 223 Clifford, who, alone of the five, had any claim to be regarded as an honest man. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. xxi. 197 It is not youth alone that has need to learn humility. |
b. preceding or separated from the n. (hence tending to adv.)
| c 1400 Apol. for Loll. 110 Alon he vsiþ ministry. Alon he chalangiþ to him all þingis. Alon he assoyliþ oþer partyes. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 77 'Tis not alone my Inky Cloake, (good Mother). 1702 Pope Sapho 14 Music has charms alone for peaceful minds. 1817 Coleridge Sib. Leaves (1862) 125 That malignity of heart, which could alone have prompted sentiments so atrocious. 1878 Seeley Stein III. 515 Always and alone he blames the Reaction. |
9. adv. Referring to vb., adj., phr. or clause: Only, solely, merely, simply, exclusively.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 451 Hetlik he lette of ilk fere To godd self wald he be pere; Noght pere allan, bot mikul mare, For vndur him he wald all ware, And be him self þair comandur. 1661 Heylin Hist. Ref. II. iii. 74 These prayers..were not alone thought necessary for all sorts of people..but used both by Priest and People. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 515 Whose Leaves are not alone foul Winter's Prey, But oft by Summer Suns are scorch'd away. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. cxiii, Wisdom..Which not alone had guided me, But served the seasons that may rise. |
10. Comb. alone-liver, one who lives alone.
| 1553 N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices (1556) 77 Even to the alone-liver, and one that leades his life in the feeldes. |