The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sanctuary \Sanc"tu*a*ry\, n.; pl. Sanctuaries. [OE. seintuarie, OF. saintuaire, F. sanctuaire, fr. L. sanctuarium, from sanctus sacred, holy. See Saint.] A sacred place; a consecrated spot; a holy and inviolable site. Hence, specifically:
The most retired part of the temple at Jerusalem, called the Holy of Holies, in which was kept the ark of the covenant, and into which no person was permitted to enter except the high priest, and he only once a year, to intercede for the people; also, the most sacred part of the tabernacle; also, the temple at Jerusalem.
(Arch.) The most sacred part of any religious building, esp. that part of a Christian church in which the altar is placed.
A house consecrated to the worship of God; a place where divine service is performed; a church, temple, or other place of worship.
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A sacred and inviolable asylum; a place of refuge and protection; shelter; refuge; protection.
These laws, whoever made them, bestowed on temples the privilege of sanctuary.
--Milton.The admirable works of painting were made fuel for the fire; but some relics of it took sanctuary under ground, and escaped the common destiny.
--Dryden.Wildlife sanctuary, a tract of land set aside by law for the preservation of wildlife, in which no hunting is permitted.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of sanctuary English)
Usage examples of "sanctuaries".
The town was part of the demimonde: most of its citizens were living ordinary lives in the surface net, but many of them were Bogdanovists, who helped support Bogdanovist refuges in the area, as well as Red sanctuaries in Mareotis and on the Great Escarpment.
And she spent a lot of time visiting other hidden sanctuaries around the South Pole.
There were only five thousand people in all of the sanctuaries together, and Simon and Nirgal's blood type was one in a million.
Nirgal had known in theory that there were a lot of people in the southern sanctuaries, five thousand as they said, all defeated rebels of the 2061 war-but it was something else again to meet so many of them so fast, and see that it was really true.
Anyway, now the resistance includes the underground and the demimonde, and having the open towns is a big help to the hidden sanctuaries, so I'm glad they're here.
And besides, it's important that not too many people know where all the hidden sanctuaries are.
Nirgal was very surprised by the variety and number of sanctuaries, forming together their strange world, half secret and half exposed.
We're not seeing so many people trying to get out into the sanctuaries, like we did in the years before sixty-one.
I'm going to drop in on a lot of sanctuaries, and we can talk to them about a meeting.
Most of the hidden sanctuaries are either Bogdanovist or else heavily influenced by them.
They had tried something like it years before, but had not gotten many takers at the time-had lists of the sanctuaries in their region-and one of the older women said, with authority, that they would be happy to host it, as they had a space large enough to handle a great number of guests.
They talked for a while about all the sanctuaries, how different they were and yet hew much they had in common.
They don't seem to know where most of the hidden sanctuaries are, but they're checking hot spots one by one, and they entered Christianopolis, and took it over as a base of operations.
If they find many more sanctuaries the radicals are bound to call for an attack.
The strategy consisted of simply disappearing from the face of Mars-no reprisals, no sabotage, nobody home in whatever sanctuaries they happened to stumble on.