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:
People of many faiths make their way to the Muslim shrine Haji Ali.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
A church bell can sound within earshot of a mosque's call to prayer; a shrine belonging to one faith can draw followers of another.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
He had moved nearby to care for his wife’s grandmother, who had looked after the shrine for decades before him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
There had been some speculation that Takaichi, a regular visitor before becoming prime minister in October, might attend the shrine like then-premier Shinzo Abe, her mentor, had done in 2013.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
“The only other known jinn harp has her own shrine in a Tibetan sanctuary,” Grandpa explained.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
But Muslim shrines have not seen the same largesse, said analyst and Modi biographer Mukhopadhyay.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
The result at Deanna Evans is a series of shrines through which eyes consider us or hands, clasped in prayer or curved in a blessing, beckon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 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
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
‘A little. But I’ll be going back and forth between the camps a lot. I have some shrines to build.’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Hastily casting down her gaze it fell upon a photograph of her husband, taken ten years or so ago, shrined in its silver frame amid the silver accessories of the dressing-table.
From A Sheaf of Corn by Mary E. Mann
I say 'mutatis mutandis', because the historical development of a group of imaginary concepts shrined in tradition and romance can never be quite the same as that of the people who conceive them.
From Five Stages of Greek Religion by Gilbert Murray
The golden air is thick with suggestions of dim, celestial faces, but nothing mars the imposing solitude of the Queen of Heaven, shrined alone, throned in the luminous azure.
From Famous European Artists by Sarah K. Bolton
Each shrined a son as special favourite, my lord taking to his bosom the younger, Terence--whilst my lady doted with a hungry love upon the elder, Shane.
From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. I (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Lewis Wingfield
But another idol was shrined and secretly worshipped there.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 10 by Various
"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
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
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 Second Book of Modern Verse; a selection from the work of contemporaneous American poets by Jessie Belle Rittenhouse
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
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.
