enshrine
Americanverb (used with object)
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enshrines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
enshrined,
past participle, past
-
enshrining
present participle
-
to enclose in or as in a shrine.
His love for her is enshrined forever in his poetry.
-
to cherish as sacred.
The memory of our friendship will be enshrined in my heart.
verb
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to place or enclose in or as if in a shrine
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to hold as sacred; cherish; treasure
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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enshrinesimple
-
enshrinessimple
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have enshrinedperfect
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has enshrinedperfect
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am enshriningprogressive
-
are enshriningprogressive
-
is enshriningprogressive
-
have been enshriningperfect progressive
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has been enshriningperfect progressive
Past
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enshrinedsimple
-
had enshrinedperfect
-
was enshriningprogressive
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were enshriningprogressive
-
had been enshriningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enshrine
Explanation
If your mother enshrines your first drawing, she might frame it and hang it in a special place, as if it were a holy relic. To enshrine is to put something special, often religious, into a protective place. A shrine is a place considered holy because something special happened there or a case that holds sacred items. Places where people have claimed to see Jesus sometimes become shrines. When you enshrine something, it means you are creating a shrine around it, or you are giving it its own protected, revered space. This can be literal or figurative. At a funeral, the minister might say that the deceased will forever be enshrined in the memories of those who loved him or her.
Vocabulary lists containing enshrine
The Crossover
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Vocabulary from Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech, November 9, 2016
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Martin Scorsese on Cinema
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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:
Yes, and the risk is that government regulation would enshrine a testing oligopoly that reduces the incentives for due diligence by evaluators.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
You may not get everything you want, but we should all agree that the civil rights and liberties the founding fathers sought to enshrine in our Constitution must be defended.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
The state’s true goal, he asserted, is to enshrine “local attitudes” and “a Hawaiian tradition” that “disfavor the carrying of guns” in public to prevent violence.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
But the $850 million center will enshrine Obama's core message of "hope," said Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation and a former top White House aide during his presidency.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Working as a lawyer in South Africa meant operating under a debased system of justice, a code of law that did not enshrine equality but its opposite.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The International Court of Justice has been asked to deliver a so-called advisory opinion on whether a treaty drawn up in 1948 by the International Labour Organisation implicitly enshrines the right to strike.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
In fact, Article IV of the treaty enshrines enrichment as an “inalienable right.”
From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2026
It enshrines the commitment to uphold the Seven Principles of Public Life, and details "the overarching duty on Ministers to comply with the law and to protect the integrity of public life".
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2025
The measure enshrines the text of the Ten Commandments found in the Protestant King James Version of the Bible.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
The expression, "he is a man of one idea," enshrines in popular language the conclusion of psychologists that if a single idea is present in the mind it will surely work itself out.
From Psychotherapy by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
The Measure G governance reform task force is setting everything up, but officials realized that for true independence, the seven-member commission and the compliance office must be permanently enshrined in the county charter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Now he is championing a "people-led" movement that promotes the protection of human rights and rule of law as enshrined in the constitution.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
We all grasp what it means to be an American and how that is enshrined in the Constitution.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
Only three Ramones songs ever made it to the Billboard Hot 100 — “Rockaway Beach,” “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker,” and “Do You Wanna Dance,” all absolute bangers that should be enshrined in the culture.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
The date of it, however, was enshrined in memory, and dubbed “Foul Friday.”
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
Yousef, whose community strongly promotes gender equality, said she also wants to work on "defending women's rights and enshrining them in the country's constitution".
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Pope Leo XIV on Monday warned that AI risked enshrining “an anti-human vision,” replacing jobs with dehumanizing work and consuming vast amounts of water and energy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
Real name Norman Cook, Fatboy Slim gained some recognition in the 1980s with bands The Housemartins and Beats International, before enshrining himself as a mainstay of the dance music scene during the 1990s.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
On a national level, enshrining community as a civic value and way of life must serve as a local bulwark against natural disaster and larger political forces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2025
He was; but, in compensation for being born a poet, he possessed the latter's faculty for enshrining a reality in a sentiment.
From The Passionate Elopement by Compton MacKenzie
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
