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
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust - an independent trust which manages the shrine - held its first meeting on Monday after allegations of donation thefts surfaced last month.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 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
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
He felt all those nonwinning awards would be “a shrine to mediocrity,” and such a thing was beneath me.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
After Najaf, Khamenei's body will be flown to Karbala, about 60 kilometres north, for another procession that will culminate at the shrines of Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 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
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
Or almost abandoned, because a pair of monks lived there in a tar paper shack, tending a small garden and some broken shrines.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
The Easter moon, golden-white and holy, looked down at her, shrined under the long sharp arch of the beech-trees; it was like going up and up towards a dim sanctuary where the holiest sat enthroned.
From The Flaw in the Crystal by Sinclair, May
Cecilia reads it until each comforting assertion is shrined within her heart and doubt is no longer possible.
From Airy Fairy Lilian by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton (AKA Duchess)
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)
The million-tinted pearl of ocean Lies shrined within its mortal shell, And sails the deep in wavy motion, Responsive to each tidal swell.
From Donahoe's Magazine, Vol. XV, No. 4, April, 1886 Volume 15 (January 1886 - July 1886) by Various
You have been shrined in my heart since that second time we met, but I knew it was hopeless——" "Clever boy!
From White Fire by Oxenham, John
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
"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
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
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 Rittenhouse, Jessie Belle
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.
