shrine
Americannoun
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shrines
plural
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a building or other shelter, often of a stately or sumptuous character, enclosing the remains or relics of a saint or other holy person and forming an object of religious veneration and pilgrimage.
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any place or object hallowed by its history or associations.
a historic shrine.
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any structure or place consecrated or devoted to some saint, holy person, or deity, as an altar, chapel, church, or temple.
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a receptacle for sacred relics; a reliquary.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a place of worship hallowed by association with a sacred person or object
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a container for sacred relics
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the tomb of a saint or other holy person
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a place or site venerated for its association with a famous person or event
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RC Church a building, alcove, or shelf arranged as a setting for a statue, picture, or other representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of shrine
before 1000; Middle English schrine, Old English scrīn (cognate with German Schrein, Dutch schrijn ) < Latin scrīnium case for books and papers
Explanation
Set up some candles and a photograph of someone important in your life in the corner of a room where you spend time reflecting silently, and you've created a shrine. Shrine comes from the Latin scrinium meaning "case or box for keeping papers." Think of a shrine as a niche or case in which the spirit of someone special is kept. It could be a statue or some other form of commemoration to either a person or a relic. A shrine can be as small as a tiny mantel in your house or it can be as massive as a building commemorating, or shrining, a sacred person.
Vocabulary lists containing shrine
World Religions
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Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
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Ancient Rome - Introductory
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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:
This strange modern shrine celebrated Mao’s 1968 distribution of a Pakistani diplomatic gift of mangoes to workers at university campuses in Beijing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
In minutes, Bartlett had sketched the makeshift shrine that Helga builds for Arnold in her closet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said attacks on Mecca and Medina province, where Islam's second holiest shrine is located, constituted an "unacceptable and intolerable transgression".
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Distinguished by a red-tiled facade and paper lanterns hanging overhead, the shrine had offering cups arranged in rows on a crimson table and a bronze urn spouting wisps of incense.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
They hid it in an underground shrine in Rome.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Taipei’s grand temples like Longshan and Xingtian are only part of the city’s religious fabric, so one afternoon I went in search of the smaller shrines tucked into its quieter corners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
After Najaf, Khamenei's body will be flown to Karbala, about 60 kilometres north, for another procession that will culminate at the shrines of Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
She enjoys tea ceremonies, wearing kimonos and visiting shrines and temples, according to her official profile page.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
To Steve Jobs, they will build shrines; to his outgoing successor Tim Cook, they will dedicate case studies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
‘I’ll make sure none of the gods are forgotten at either camp. Maybe they’ll get temples, or cabins, or at least shrines -’ ‘Or collectible trading cards,’ Kym suggested.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
O shrined above the skies, Frown not, clear brow, Darken not, holy eyes!
From Gloucester Moors and Other Poems by William Vaughn Moody
The loveliness was shrined in the souls of the generations that gazed, and, gazing, were raised into the fellowship of the hearts that planned and builded.
From The Great Discovery by Norman Maclean
The Easter moon, golden-white and holy, looked down at her, shrined under the long sharp arch of the beech-trees; it was like going up and up towards a dim sanctuary where the holiest sat enthroned.
From The Flaw in the Crystal by May Sinclair
I would not that one glance to-day, One glance through clouds and tears, Should mar the image in my soul That love hath shrined for years.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, No. 362, December 1845 by Various
Wherefore her heart, that had shrined a god, was now empty.
From The Stars in the Pool A Prose Poem for Lovers by Edna Kingsley Wallace
Elsewhere he speaks of Tweed shrining the music of his cradle song, and the requiem he would most prefer—may that day be long in coming!
From In the Border Country by W. S.
Bosomed with the Blessed One, He shall mind her of her Son, Once so folded from all harms, In her shrining arms.
From The Home Book of Verse — Volume 1 by Burton Egbert Stevenson
"May all that cling to sprays of time, like me, Be sweetly wafted over sky and sea By rose-breaths shrining maidens like to thee!"
From The Poems of Sidney Lanier by Sidney Lanier
Bosomed with the Blessed One, He shall mind her of her Son, Once so folded from all harms In her shrining arms.
From The Second Book of Modern Verse; a selection from the work of contemporaneous American poets by Jessie Belle Rittenhouse
The wisest soul, by anguish torn, Will soon unlearn the lore it knew; And when the shrining casket's worn, The gem within will tarnish too.
From The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore Collected by Himself with Explanatory Notes by William Michael Rossetti
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