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:
But now the Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez Stadium has become a shrine to the player, with hundreds of people gathering throughout the past few days to lay flowers, light candles and pay their respects.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
This strange modern shrine celebrated Mao’s 1968 distribution of a Pakistani diplomatic gift of mangoes to workers at university campuses in Beijing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
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
Or maybe the shrine was no longer here.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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
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
Cherry flowers at ancient temples and shrines in Kyoto are particularly popular among visitors and locals.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
Radiating out from Awkaypata was a drunken spiderweb of forty-one crooked, spiritually powerful lines, known as zeq’e, that linked holy features of the landscape: springs, tombs, caves, shrines, fields, stones.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Where ’twas shrined in my heart I thy image discrown, And from out thy high heaven I hurl thee adown!
From Jeremiah A Drama in Nine Scenes by Stefan Zweig
Wherefore her heart, that had shrined a god, was now empty.
From The Stars in the Pool A Prose Poem for Lovers by Edna Kingsley Wallace
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 May Sinclair
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
But another idol was shrined and secretly worshipped there.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 10 by Various
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
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
"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
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