sanctuary

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsæŋktjʊəɹi/, /ˈsæŋkt͡ʃʊəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsæŋkt͡ʃuˌɛɹi/
• Hyphenation: sanc‧tu‧ary

sanctuary (countable and uncountable, plural sanctuaries)

 

1. A place of safety, refuge, or protection.

   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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. […]’

2. An area set aside for protection.

   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.

• privileged sanctuary

• “sanctuary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “sanctuary”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
•   sanctuary on Wikipedia.Wikipedia