All 49 Uses of
solemn
in
War and Peace
- Each visitor performed the ceremony of greeting this old aunt whom not one of them knew, not one of them wanted to know, and not one of them cared about; Anna Pavlovna observed these greetings with mournful and solemn interest and silent approval.†
Chpt 1solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- Pierre looked solemnly at his audience over his spectacles and continued.†
Chpt 1 *solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- By the chair stood the priests, their long hair falling over their magnificent glittering vestments, with lighted tapers in their hands, slowly and solemnly conducting the service.†
Chpt 1
- "But, Prince," said Anna Mikhaylovna, "after such a solemn sacrament, allow him a moment's peace!†
Chpt 1solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- "Against your will He will save and have mercy on you and bring you to Himself, for in Him alone is truth and peace," said she in a voice trembling with emotion, solemnly holding up in both hands before her brother a small, oval, antique, dark-faced icon of the Saviour in a gold setting, on a finely wrought silver chain.†
Chpt 1solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- He had the air of a man happily performing one of the most solemn duties of his life.†
Chpt 2solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- "I will the bridge fire," he said in a solemn tone as if to announce that in spite of all the unpleasantness he had to endure he would still do the right thing.†
Chpt 2
- Rostov watched his enemy, the colonel, closely—to find in his face confirmation of his own conjecture, but the colonel did not once glance at Rostov, and looked as he always did when at the front, solemn and stern.†
Chpt 2
- Not only the generals in full parade uniforms, with their thin or thick waists drawn in to the utmost, their red necks squeezed into their stiff collars, and wearing scarves and all their decorations, not only the elegant, pomaded officers, but every soldier with his freshly washed and shaven face and his weapons clean and polished to the utmost, and every horse groomed till its coat shone like satin and every hair of its wetted mane lay smooth—felt that no small matter was happening, but an important and solemn affair.†
Chpt 3
- The sailor rarely cares to know the latitude in which his ship is sailing, but on the day of battle—heaven knows how and whence—a stern note of which all are conscious sounds in the moral atmosphere of an army, announcing the approach of something decisive and solemn, and awakening in the men an unusual curiosity.†
Chpt 3
- "How quiet, peaceful, and solemn; not at all as I ran," thought Prince Andrew—"not as we ran, shouting and fighting, not at all as the gunner and the Frenchman with frightened and angry faces struggled for the mop: how differently do those clouds glide across that lofty infinite sky!†
Chpt 3
- Everything seemed so futile and insignificant in comparison with the stern and solemn train of thought that weakness from loss of blood, suffering, and the nearness of death aroused in him.†
Chpt 3
- On their faces was a quiet and solemn look.†
Chpt 4
- The most solemn mystery in the world continued its course.†
Chpt 4
- All maintained a solemn silence, listening to the words of the President, who held a mallet in his hand.†
Chpt 5
- A solemn meeting of the lodge of the second degree was convened, at which Pierre promised to communicate to the Petersburg Brothers what he had to deliver to them from the highest leaders of their order.†
Chpt 6
- Christmas came and except for the ceremonial Mass, the solemn and wearisome Christmas congratulations from neighbors and servants, and the new dresses everyone put on, there were no special festivities, though the calm frost of twenty degrees Reaumur, the dazzling sunshine by day, and the starlight of the winter nights seemed to call for some special celebration of the season.†
Chpt 7
- The small group that assembled before dinner in the lofty old-fashioned drawing room with its old furniture resembled the solemn gathering of a court of justice.†
Chpt 8
- But in nothing in the house was the holiday so noticeable as in Marya Dmitrievna's broad, stern face, which on that day wore an invariable look of solemn festivity.†
Chpt 8
- Though they were all going with him, Anatole evidently wished to make something touching and solemn out of this address to his comrades.†
Chpt 8
- Balashev was only two horses' length from the equestrian with the bracelets, plumes, necklaces, and gold embroidery, who was galloping toward him with a theatrically solemn countenance, when Julner, the French colonel, whispered respectfully: "The King of Naples!"†
Chpt 9
- Though it was quite incomprehensible why he should be King of Naples, he was called so, and was himself convinced that he was so, and therefore assumed a more solemn and important air than formerly.†
Chpt 9
- Then suddenly, as if remembering his royal dignity, Murat solemnly drew himself up, assumed the pose in which he had stood at his coronation, and, waving his right arm, said: "I won't detain you longer, General.†
Chpt 9solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- The deacon came out onto the raised space before the altar screen and, holding his thumb extended, drew his long hair from under his dalmatic and, making the sign of the cross on his breast, began in a loud and solemn voice to recite the words of the prayer... "In peace let us pray unto the Lord."†
Chpt 9solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- The countess shook her head disapprovingly and angrily at every solemn expression in the manifesto.†
Chpt 9
- On all these faces, as on the faces of the crowd Petya had seen in the Square, there was a striking contradiction: the general expectation of a solemn event, and at the same time the everyday interests in a boston card party, Peter the cook, Zinaida Dmitrievna's health, and so on.†
Chpt 9
- Alpatych turned his face to Prince Andrew, looked at him, and suddenly with a solemn gesture raised his arm.†
Chpt 10
- Alpatych repeated, withdrawing his hand from his bosom and solemnly pointing to the floor at Dron's feet.†
Chpt 10solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- "I am very glad to meet you here, Count," he said aloud, regardless of the presence of strangers and in a particularly resolute and solemn tone.†
Chpt 10solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- A second and a third report shook the air, then a fourth and a fifth boomed solemnly near by on the right.†
Chpt 10solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- From the left, over fields and bushes, those large balls of smoke were continually appearing followed by their solemn reports, while nearer still, in the hollows and woods, there burst from the muskets small cloudlets that had no time to become balls, but had their little echoes in just the same way.†
Chpt 10solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- now wrote a proclamation to the French solemnly upbraiding them for having destroyed his Orphanage;†
Chpt 11solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- And now a picture of a solemn meeting of the lodge presented itself to his mind.†
Chpt 11solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- Evidently possessed by some idea, he stood over those who were singing, and solemnly and jerkily flourished above their heads his white arm with the sleeve turned up to the elbow, trying unnaturally to spread out his dirty fingers.†
Chpt 11solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- The lunatic's solemn, gloomy face was thin and yellow, with its beard growing in uneven tufts.†
Chpt 11solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- He had gone to Joseph Alexeevich's house, on the plea of sorting the deceased's books and papers, only in search of rest from life's turmoil, for in his mind the memory of Joseph Alexeevich was connected with a world of eternal, solemn, and calm thoughts, quite contrary to the restless confusion into which he felt himself being drawn.†
Chpt 11
- When he heard these words and saw the expression of firm resolution in the Emperor's eyes, Michaud—quoique etranger, russe de coeur et d'ame—at that solemn moment felt himself enraptured by all that he had heard (as he used afterwards to say), and gave expression to his own feelings and those of the Russian people whose representative he considered himself to be, in the following words: "Sire!" said he, "Your Majesty is at this moment signing the glory of the nation and the salvation of Europe!"†
Chpt 12
- Toward the end of the evening, however, as the wife's face grew more flushed and animated, the husband's became more and more melancholy and solemn, as though there were but a given amount of animation between them and as the wife's share increased the husband's diminished.†
Chpt 12
- "You remember," said Sonya with a solemn and frightened expression.†
Chpt 12
- But when the guard was relieved next morning, Pierre felt that for the new guard—both officers and men—he was not as interesting as he had been to his captors; and in fact the guard of the second day did not recognize in this big, stout man in a peasant coat the vigorous person who had fought so desperately with the marauder and the convoy and had uttered those solemn words about saving a child; they saw in him only No.†
Chpt 12
- He liked to talk and he talked well, adorning his speech with terms of endearment and with folk sayings which Pierre thought he invented himself, but the chief charm of his talk lay in the fact that the commonest events—sometimes just such as Pierre had witnessed without taking notice of them—assumed in Karataev's a character of solemn fitness.†
Chpt 12
- Natasha and Princess Mary also wept now, but not because of their own personal grief; they wept with a reverent and softening emotion which had taken possession of their souls at the consciousness of the simple and solemn mystery of death that had been accomplished in their presence.†
Chpt 12
- When on the first day he got up early, went out of the shed at dawn, and saw the cupolas and crosses of the New Convent of the Virgin still dark at first, the hoarfrost on the dusty grass, the Sparrow Hills, and the wooded banks above the winding river vanishing in the purple distance, when he felt the contact of the fresh air and heard the noise of the crows flying from Moscow across the field, and when afterwards light gleamed from the east and the sun's rim appeared solemnly from behind a cloud, and the cupolas and crosses, the hoarfrost, the distance and the river, all began to sparkle in the glad light—Pierre felt a new joy and strength in life such as he had never before known.†
Chpt 13solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
- "Ozheg-zheg, Ozheg-zheg..." hissed the saber against the whetstone, and suddenly Petya heard an harmonious orchestra playing some unknown, sweetly solemn hymn.†
Chpt 14solemn = very serious--possibly dignified
- Each instrument—now resembling a violin and now a horn, but better and clearer than violin or horn—played its own part, and before it had finished the melody merged with another instrument that began almost the same air, and then with a third and a fourth; and they all blended into one and again became separate and again blended, now into solemn church music, now into something dazzlingly brilliant and triumphant.†
Chpt 14
- He closed his eyes, and, from all sides as if from a distance, sounds fluttered, grew into harmonies, separated, blended, and again all mingled into the same sweet and solemn hymn.†
Chpt 14
- With a solemn triumphal march there mingled a song, the drip from the trees, and the hissing of the saber, "Ozheg-zheg-zheg..." and again the horses jostled one another and neighed, not disturbing the choir but joining in it.†
Chpt 14
- A pleasant feeling of excitement and an expectation of something joyful and solemn was aroused among the soldiers of the convoy and the prisoners.†
Chpt 14
- No one could have repeated the field marshal's address, begun solemnly and then changing into an old man's simplehearted talk; but the hearty sincerity of that speech, the feeling of majestic triumph combined with pity for the foe and consciousness of the justice of our cause, exactly expressed by that old man's good-natured expletives, was not merely understood but lay in the soul of every soldier and found expression in their joyous and long-sustained shouts.†
Chpt 15solemnly = with seriousness and dignity
Definitions:
-
(1)
(solemn) in a very serious (and often dignified) manner
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Less commonly, solemn can mean that something was done with great or appropriate ceremony. It can also be used to describe something as dark or undecorated.