refuge
Americannoun
-
refuges
plural
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
shelter or protection, as from the weather or danger
-
any place, person, action, or thing that offers or appears to offer protection, help, or relief
accused of incompetence, he took refuge in lying
-
another name for traffic island
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of refuge
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin refugium, from refug(ere) “to turn and flee, run away” ( re- re- + fugere “to flee”; see fugitive) + -ium -ium
Explanation
To take refuge is to find a safe place. You might take refuge under a bridge in a hail storm, or in a basement during a tornado. Refuge comes from a French word meaning "to flee," and, in most cases, a refuge is a place to flee to in order to get away from people or places that are unsafe. A refuge is a safe place, such as a building or even another country, as in "they sought refuge from the war by leaving their homeland," or it is a simple, personal place of comfort — like a friend's couch.
Vocabulary lists containing refuge
The Star-Spangled Banner
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Persepolis
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With an open-door policy, the mission has been a refuge for as many a 1,000 people, at one point putting up hundreds of cots nightly in its chapel to accommodate women from the street.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Somehow, they have found refuge in a dilapidated row house with a working television, where their viewing includes nature shows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
My homeland is a stranger’s checkpoint and, if they are lucky, their refuge.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
But South Korea's heatwave has made it uninhabitable, forcing him to seek refuge under a makeshift tarp just a stone’s throw from Gangnam’s gleaming skyscrapers, where the wealthy remain cool in their aloof abodes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
“And if Farbranch ain’t a refuge, sister, then what is it?”
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
Mobile home parks in Carson are among the last refuges of affordable housing for many residents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
His work has led directly to the establishment of national parks and refuges in many lands, including Afghanistan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
These refuges may help explain Reid's Paradox -- how forests were able to spread so quickly across the region after the last Ice Age ended.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 17, 2026
Tehran's many parks, usually green lungs in a metropolis often choked by pollution, have become refuges since the fighting began.
From Barron's ● Apr. 2, 2026
The refuge manager believes that pesticide residues are now building up in the waters of these refuges, being conveyed there by return irrigation flow from heavily sprayed agricultural lands.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
“People are homeless, they have been refuged to the mountains.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 21, 2022
Exults on hearing, from his man Will., that the lady has refuged herself at Hampstead.
From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 5 by Samuel Richardson
The Serb students refuged in London had post cards printed of the murderer Princip, on which he was described as a national hero!
From Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle by M. E. (Mary Edith) Durham
A hungry wolf had thinned the fold, Safely he refuged on the wold; And, as in den secure he lay, The thefts of night regaled his day.
From Fables of John Gay (Somewhat Altered) by John Gay
Have you not often heard, your exiled parents Were refuged in that court, and at that time?
From The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 07 by Sir Walter Scott
The long snug harbour of Mahon, which was in the days of canvas wings almost always filled with craft refuging, is now in this era of steam usually tenantless.
From The Recipe for Diamonds by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne
Debarred the healthier paths of life, man rushes for employment to the refuging muse; and rightly so, for he finds an employment ornamental and useful still.
From Fables of John Gay (Somewhat Altered) by John Gay
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
