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:
The 29-year-old student traveled to the shrine from the southeastern city of Vicosa and plans to vote for Lula.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
In minutes, Bartlett had sketched the makeshift shrine that Helga builds for Arnold in her closet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
People of many faiths make their way to the Muslim shrine Haji Ali.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said attacks on Mecca and Medina province, where Islam's second holiest shrine is located, constituted an "unacceptable and intolerable transgression".
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 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
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
She enjoys tea ceremonies, wearing kimonos and visiting shrines and temples, according to her official profile page.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 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
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
That first captain walled their promontory, built their homes and shrines, and parcelled out the black land for the plow.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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
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 Norman Maclean
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 Nixon Waterman
The portrait I took down from its shrined position; the Damascus daggers I put again into their places, and the Mandarin's kimono I folded carefully into a package.
From The Portal of Dreams by Charles Neville Buck
One of these bays shrined a window, four-mullioned, the other a spiral staircase.
From The Great House by Stanley John Weyman
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
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
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 Second Book of Modern Verse; a selection from the work of contemporaneous American poets by Jessie Belle Rittenhouse
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