introverted

1. 1
   adjective

   Having the inward-focused, thoughtful, and reflective personality typical of an introvert.

   Like a battery that recharges in quiet rather than in a crowd.

   Introverted employees often do their best work in quiet, focused settings rather than open-plan offices.

   Though introverted by nature, she could command a room when the topic mattered to her.

   Similarreserved, introspective, quiet, retiring, reticent

   Oppositeextroverted, outgoing, gregarious, sociable

   Note

   This was a technical term before it became an everyday one. Carl Jung set the introverted type, whose libido turns toward his own personality, against the extraverted. The opposite is spelled both ways: Jung's extraverted, and the extroverted of present-day writing. In 1968 Charles Rycroft warned against equating introverted with withdrawn or schizoid. In careful use the word names an orientation of attention and energy, not shyness or illness.

2. 2
   adjective

   Turned or thrust inward, so that it faces or points toward the inside rather than outward.

   Traditional courtyard houses in the region are introverted, with blank outer walls and every room opening onto a central garden.

   In these marine worms, the proboscis lies introverted within the body until it is shot out to seize prey.

   Note

   The literal inward turn that the mental meanings borrow: built from the verb introvert plus -ed, it describes an organ drawn back inside a body or a house whose rooms open only onto its own courtyard. It stays close to the past participle, since a proboscis lying introverted is one that has been turned in. Said of a building, it describes layout, not temperament, which belongs to the personality sense.

3. 3
   adjective

   Directed toward inner experience or spiritual matters rather than the outside world.

   The monk lived an introverted life devoted to contemplation and inner peace.

   In her most introverted phases, she turned away from worldly concerns toward questions of the spirit.

   Similarcontemplative, introspective, inward, reflective, meditative

   Oppositeworldly, outward

   Note

   The older, contemplative use stays close to the literal "turned inward." William Cowper's Conversation (1782) speaks of "self-searching with an introverted eye." Here the inward turn is an act of attention or devotion, not a fixed temperament. That is what separates it from the psychologist's personality type, the later sense Carl Jung writes about in 1915.

4. 4
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of introvert.

   Note

   The verb behind this form has two lives. In the mental one, thought turns toward inner or spiritual matters. In the biological one, an organ is withdrawn into itself or its base, as with the retractable front portion of some annelid worms. The adjective has the same spelling, so the context decides which is meant. With had (had introverted) it is clearly the verb; with was, it can be either a passive verb or the adjective.

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