abri

American  

[uh-bree, a-bree] / əˈbri, aˈbri /

noun

• abris
  plural

1. a shelter, especially a dugout.

2. Archaeology. a rock shelter formed by the overhang of a cliff and often containing prehistoric occupation deposits.

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abri British  

/ æˈbriː /

noun

1. a shelter or place of refuge, esp in wartime

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• abris
  plural

Etymology

Origin of abri

< French, Old French, noun derivative of abrier (now obsolete or dial.) to shelter, shield, screen < Late Latin aprīcāre to warm in the sun (hence, to shield from wind, cold, etc.), verbal derivative of Latin aprīcus sunny, warmed by the sunshine; Old French b for v perhaps < Old Provençal abriar, or by construal of a- as prefix

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

abri abris

Hind, a local resident, said the frequent water outages forced her and her family to rely solely on their reserves of abri - a corn-based drink usually consumed during Ramadan - to quench their thirst.

From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2023

We passed through several gun pits and stopped in front of a huge abri built entirely above ground.

From "And they thought we wouldn't fight" by Floyd Gibbons

All round red clay, out of which the abri was excavated.

From One Man's Initiation—1917 by John Dos Passos

Five months have passed since I last saw the inhabitants of this abri, the tenants of the "Ritz-Marmite."

From A Volunteer Poilu by Henry Beston

When the chik and the hatch'd porior are lell'd from the chiriclesky trupos, the per's chinn'd aley, and the wendror's wusted abri, 'tis a hobben dosta koshto for a crallissa to hal without lon.

From Romano Lavo-Lil: word book of the Romany; or, English Gypsy language by George Henry Borrow

I've been in some twenty-five or thirty air-raids in four or five cities of France, and I have never yet seen many Americans who took to the "abris."

From Soldier Silhouettes on our Front by William L. (William Le Roy) Stidger

Captain Robbins ordered everyone into the abris till the shelling ceased.

From Battery E in France 149th Field Artillery, Rainbow (42nd) Division by Frederic R. Kilner

And it was all—riding along the line, huddling in abris, sneaking scared to death along trenches, and ducking from the shells—all vastly diverting.

From The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me by William Allen White

It was a warning to all to seek the comparative safety of the abris which the town had constructed against just such an emergency.

From Aces Up by Covington Clarke

After the seven weeks of close confinement in damp abris, the change to the life at the Merviller position was like a trip to a summer resort.

From Battery E in France 149th Field Artillery, Rainbow (42nd) Division by Frederic R. Kilner