sanctuary - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English seyntuarie, from Old French saintuaire, from Late Latin sanctuarium (“a sacred place, a shrine, a private cabinet, in Medieval Latin also temple, church, churchyard, cemetery, right of asylum”), from Latin sanctus (“holy, sacred”); see saint.

sanctuary (countable and uncountable, plural sanctuaries)

A sanctuary in the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal

  1. A place of safety, refuge, or protection.
    Synonyms: haven, refuge, shelter, zoar
    Hyponym: privileged sanctuary
    My car is a sanctuary, where none can disturb me except for people who cut me off.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Last Night with the Dead”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 315:
      She saw him, even as she had last gazed upon him, pale, cold, and awful; but still he was there. The coffin was to her like a shrine; all that she held most dear and most precious was within its dark and silent sanctuary.
    • 1985 February 9, “Political Asylum Demand”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 29, page 2:
      In January, federal agents indicted 16 sanctuary leaders from Texas and Arizona on charges of helping to harbor illegal immigrants from Central America.
  2. An area set aside for protection.
    Hyponym: privileged sanctuary
    The bird sanctuary has strict restrictions on visitors so the birds aren't disturbed.
  3. A state of being protected, asylum.
    The government granted sanctuary to the defector, protecting him from his former government.
  4. The consecrated (or sacred) area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.
    Synonyms: presbytery, presbyterium
    Near-synonym: chancel (broadly synonymous)

place of safety or protection

area set aside for protection

state of being protected

consecrated area