shrine
/ʃrʌɪn
/noun
1A place regarded as holy because of its associations with a divinity or a sacred person or relic, marked by a building or other construction: the medieval pilgrim route to the shrine of St James a Hindu shrine at which offerings are placed twice a day...
- On these days they do not enter temples or home shrines, or approach holy men.
- The Sikhs were also deprived of many historic shrines and holy places which were left in Pakistan.
- Many of my friends who are non-Muslims wonder why they are not allowed to visit Makkah and Madinah during Hajj while Muslims are allowed to visit their holy cities and shrines.
Synonyms
holy place, temple, church, chapel, tabernacle, altar, sanctuary, sanctum;
Buddhism stupa, tope;
Islam dargah, marabout;
Hinduism tirtha;
in Tibet chorten;
in ancient Rome sacrarium, nymphaeum
archaic fane
rare martyry, ciborium, feretory
1.1A place associated with or containing memorabilia of a particular revered person or thing: her grave has become a shrine for fans from all over the world...
- The parade left Fred's home in Radcliffe Road, a shrine to his love of industry, at 11 am.
- The poster is still on the wall in the bedroom my mother has turned into a shrine to my success.
- In amongst the hand-drawn maps and dinosaur relics, I found in Room 26, a shrine to Mongolia's institutional respect for the environment.
1.2A casket containing sacred relics; a reliquary.The church and Minster of St.Werburgs also would have commissioned him to make various ecclesiastical bronze ware such as Thuribles, Censers etc; possibly even elements to shrines and reliquaries....
- It is now accepted in art circles that the belt was a reliquary or shrine.
- The chests or reliquaries in which they were buried were often venerated as shrines and could also serve as an altar.
Synonyms
tomb, burial chamber, sepulchre, mausoleum, crypt, vault, catacomb, reliquary, charnel house
rare feretory
1.3A niche or enclosure containing a religious statue or other object.There is a new statue in the shrine, larger and gold-plated....
- Adriana hid the trinkets in her bedroom, in her little shrine with its statue of the Virgin.
- The shrine's niche was full of so many old flowers I couldn't even see which saint was in it.
Synonyms
memorial, monument, cenotaph, cairn, place dedicated to …
verb [with object] literary
Enshrine: a goddess shrined in every tree
Origin
Old English scrīn 'cabinet, chest, reliquary', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schrijn and German Schrein, from Latin scrinium 'chest for books'.
Old English scrīn was a ‘cabinet, chest, reliquary’. Its ultimate source is Latin scrinium ‘chest for books’.