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:
Police launched an investigation in June and arrested eight people responsible for handling donations at the revered Hindu shrine in the northern city of Ayodhya.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
Later, a lorry transported Khamenei's coffin slowly through the crowds towards the Imam Reza shrine, eventually reaching the complex as night fell.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Mounted slightly above head height and illuminated like a shrine, it flickers among Art Deco radio, fierce guardian and modern sculpture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Khamenei was born on April 19, 1939, in the shrine city of Mashhad, where he later requested to be buried.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Fishermen who are the descendants of the Heike dress in hemp and black headgear and proceed to the Akama shrine which contains the mausoleum of the drowned Emperor.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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
Speaking on behalf of the Adunni Olorisha Trust, Akinsanya said the carver's "craftsmanship is visible in the ritual figures, majestic pillars, and beautifully crafted roofs adorning many of the shrines".
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2026
In Osaka, Japan, young women dressed in traditional kimono took part in a Shinto ritual procession to mark the end of the year at Sumiyoshi Taisha, one of Japan's oldest Shinto shrines.
From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2025
‘But it’s the most logical choice. The oldest shrines on the Acropolis are dedicated to Poseidon and Athena. Kekrops, wouldn’t that mask our approach?’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
He withdrew, to walk home with the dear shrined image of her in his swelling heart; with her tender words of faith in him to summon a maze of happy dreams.
From The Lash by Lyman, Olin L.
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
Let’s live to-day so it shall be, When shrined within the memory, As free from self-inflicted sorrows As are our hopes of our to-morrows.
From The Girl Wanted by Waterman, Nixon
His body was laid to rest with a sumptuous splendour;737 his relics, embalmed or shrined, were venerated with an almost idolatrous homage.
From History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2) by Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
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 Maclean, Norman
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
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.
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.
