a. and adv. 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. Shaks., 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. Shaks., 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, Engl. 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. Poems (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. Bellenden, 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, trans. 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. Maundev., 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. Shaks., 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. Short-Hand, 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 sb.: Solitary, isolated, unattended. Obs.
1663. Flagellum, O. Cromwell (1672), 103. Ascribes it … to the alone wisdome of God.
1683. Gadbury, Pref. Sir G. Wharton’s Wks. By this alone Example, the Non-conformist should learn to be obedient.
1772. J. Fletcher, Logica Genev., 211. For the alone sake of Christ’s atoning blood and personal righteousness, [etc.].
b. following the sb.
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, Stud. 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. trans. 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 sb. 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. Shaks., Two Gent., I. ii. 1. Say Lucetta (now we are alone) Would’st thou then counsaile me to fall in loue?
1824. Byron, Don. J., 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 sb.
c. 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. P. P., 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 sb. (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. Shaks., Haml., 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.
c. 1260. A Sarmun, in E. E. Poems (1862), 3. Hit nis noȝt his hit nis ilend him bot alone fort to libbe is lif i-wisse.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 451. To god self wald he be pere; Noght pere allan, bot mikul mare.
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. Grimald, Cicero’s Offices (1556), 77. Even to the alone-liver, and one that leades his life in the feeldes.
