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:
In minutes, Bartlett had sketched the makeshift shrine that Helga builds for Arnold in her closet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Turki al-Maliki said the targeting of Mecca, which is the home of Islam's most sacred shrine and the focal point of the Hajj pilgrimage, was a "disgraceful act".
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Two blocks from my hotel I found another earth god shrine, no bigger than a kitchen cabinet, at the base of an apartment building wall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Down a quiet residential lane in central Taipei, behind the stalls of a farmers market, I found a shrine to the area’s Taoist earth god.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
In the glow of the fake sun, framed family pictures and yellowing birth and marriage certificates are attached to the other walls, like a shrine to Earth.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Earlier, the Houthis denied that they had attacked Saudi Arabia on Thursday, after the coalition said its forces had intercepted a cruise missile in the Medina region, home to one of Islam's holiest shrines.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Taipei’s grand temples like Longshan and Xingtian are only part of the city’s religious fabric, so one afternoon I went in search of the smaller shrines tucked into its quieter corners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 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
Cherry flowers at ancient temples and shrines in Kyoto are particularly popular among visitors and locals.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
Some of the visitors make shrines, leave flowers at her statue, or give small offerings to the sea.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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
O thou, in me, Art shrined, as none hath seen thee, as gods live Whom Time shall not consume; nor rusts thy gold Ever, so hath my soul enclosed thee round With its divine air.
From Eidola by Frederic Manning
But for all my amazement the main thought in my mind was of a certain picture of a girl’s face that lay, shrined in a cedar-wood box, hidden away in my room upstairs.
From Marjorie by Justin H. (Justin Huntly) McCarthy
If that I dye, yet will it glad my soule, Which then shall feede on those Elisian ioyes, That in the sacred Temple of thy breast, My liuing memory shall shrined bee.
From The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge by Anonymous
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
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.
"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
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
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
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
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