shrine
Americannoun
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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:
At the shrine, dozens of clerics stood ready to pray over the coffin before it was carried on to the city of Karbala.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
Several notable figures have been buried in the shrine over the centuries, including several former Iranian shahs, as well as former president Ebrahim Raisi.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
They will end on Thursday, when Khamenei will be buried at the Imam Reza shrine in his home city of Mashhad, in north-eastern Iran.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Following a procession at the shrine of Imam Ali, Shia Islam's first imam, ceremonies will continue in Karbala before the body returns to Iran.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
One of the Sorrows floated after her as the other two tended to their damaged shrine.
From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older
Crowds thronged the streets of Najaf on Wednesday as the coffin of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei moved through the holy city in a procession devoted to Iraq, home to Shia Islam's most sacred shrines.
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
But “Ankhmerwer”—gorgeously inscribed and illustrated and sprinkled with glimmering gold shrines, crowns, birds, gods and sun disks—rewards close looking and empathetic eyes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
In a salty touch, the first thing Kenna does is remove his roadside cross, claiming he hated memorial shrines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026
The shrines are actually a series of grottoes built out of sponge rock and crystals so that the exterior walls sparkle in the light.
From "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven
If that I dye, yet will it glad my soule, Which then shall feede on those Elisian ioyes, That in the sacred Temple of thy breast, My liuing memory shall shrined bee.
From The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge by Anonymous
Yes, Liberty shrined his parting breath, And Texas his fainting cry— Yes, Fame hath torn his young name from death, The brave can never die!
From Southern War Songs Camp-Fire, Patriotic and Sentimental by Various
He had shrined it fittingly in his home, with flowers and candles about it, and adored it daily.
From Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate by Skinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery)
O thou, in me, Art shrined, as none hath seen thee, as gods live Whom Time shall not consume; nor rusts thy gold Ever, so hath my soul enclosed thee round With its divine air.
From Eidola by Manning, Frederic
Thou art standing in the room, In a molten glory shrined That rays off into the gloom!
From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume II by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
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 Stevenson, Burton Egbert
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 Rittenhouse, Jessie Belle
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 Rossetti, William Michael
"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 Lanier, Sidney
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.
