Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship.
  • noun A place providing protection or shelter.
  • noun An undeveloped area for the preservation of animals and plants.
  • noun A source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble: synonym: shelter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dialectal form of refuse.
  • noun Same as isle of safety.
  • To shelter; protect; find refuge or excuse for.
  • To take shelter.
  • noun Shelter or protection from danger or distress.
  • noun That which shelters or protects from danger, distress, or calamity; a stronghold which protects by its strength, or a sanctuary which secures safety by its sacredness; any place where one is out of the way of a threatened danger or evil; specifically, an institution where the destitute or homeless find temporary shelter; an asylum.
  • noun An expedient to secure protection, defense, or excuse; a device; a contrivance; a shift; a resource.
  • noun Synonyms Safety, security.
  • noun Asylum, retreat, sanctuary, harbor, covert.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Shelter or protection from danger or distress.
  • noun That which shelters or protects from danger, or from distress or calamity; a stronghold which protects by its strength, or a sanctuary which secures safety by its sacredness; a place inaccessible to an enemy.
  • noun An expedient to secure protection or defense; a device or contrivance.
  • noun (Jewish Antiq.) certain cities appointed as places of safe refuge for persons who had committed homicide without design. Of these there were three on each side of Jordan.
  • noun a charitable institution for giving shelter and protection to the homeless, destitute, or tempted.
  • transitive verb obsolete To shelter; to protect.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A state of safety, protection or shelter
  • noun A place providing safety, protection or shelter
  • noun Something or someone turned to for safety or assistance; a recourse or resort
  • verb obsolete To shelter; to protect.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a safe place
  • noun act of turning to for assistance
  • noun something or someone turned to for assistance or security
  • noun a shelter from danger or hardship

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin refugium, from refugere, to run away : re-, re- + fugere, to flee.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French refuge.

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