- shelter
- shelter n Shelter, cover, retreat, refuge, asylum, sanctuary can mean the state or a place in which one is safe or secure from whatever threatens or disturbs.Shelter usually implies the protection of something that temporarily covers (as a shield or a roof) or that prevents the entrance or approach of something that would harm or annoy{
seek shelter in a cave from an approaching storm
}{shelters must be provided for sheep in winter
}{the trees afforded shade and shelter— Cather
}{the little boy would run yelping to the shelter of Mrs. Dixon's petticoats— Kenneth Roberts
}{religious discipline is nothing but a permanent psychic shelter. You stay inside it, and you're less vulnerable— Wouk
}Cover usually stresses concealment; it is often applied to a place of natural shelter (as a copse, thicket, or dense growth of brush) or, by extension, to something similarly thick or protective{they returned as wolves return to cover— Kipling
}{the blackout, whose cover enabled a number of persons ... to get about on various subversive missions— Shirer
}Retreat stresses usually voluntary retirement from danger or annoyance and escape to a condition or place promising safety or security or peace. It often suggests remoteness, solitude, quiet, or, in religious use, conditions affording opportunities for prayer and meditation{a hermit's retreat
}{ah, for some retreat deep in yonder shining Orient— Tennyson
}{regard the hut as a retreat and a camp rather than a home— Canby
}Refuge also suggests an attempt to escape whatever threatens one's peace, safety, or happiness, but it usually implies fleeing from an attack or from pursuers, or something (as a thought or emotion) that harasses like a pursuer{refuse refuge to political exiles
}{the escaped convict found refuge in a deserted house
}{our clubs are . . . not refuges for bored husbands and homeless bachelors— Brownell
}{millions of people ... feel... the secrecy of the voting booth is their last refuge— Seldes
}Asylum adds to refuge the implications of exemption from seizure or plundering and the finding of safety (as in the care of a protector or in a place outside the jurisdiction of the law){the embezzler sought asylum in a country that had no extradition treaty
}{during the war that followed, Britain gave asylum to many exiles from different lands— Victor Ross
}Sanctuary stresses the sacredness of the place and its claim to reverence or inviolability; thus, a sanctuary for wildlife is an area which is exempt from intrusion by hunters and trappers and in which predators commonly are controlled so that the forms of life which are their prey may flourish{if thou breathest aught that can attaint the honor of my house, by Saint George! not the altar itself shall be a sanctuary— Scott
}{the most important single event ... in our history is that it is our turn to be freedom's shield and sanctuary—A. E. Stevenson
}Analogous words: protection, safeguarding or safeguard (see corresponding verbs at DEFEND): *harbor, haven, portshelter vb *harbor, lodge, house, entertain, board
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
