refuge

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English

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Etymology

From Middle English refuge, from Old French refuge, from Latin refugium, from re- + fugiō (flee). Doublet of refugium.

Pronunciation

Noun

refuge (countable and uncountable, plural refuges)

  1. A state of safety, protection or shelter.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:
      Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these / Find place or refuge.
  2. A place providing safety, protection or shelter.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
  3. Something or someone turned to for safety or assistance; a recourse or resort.
  4. An expedient to secure protection or defence.
    • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      Their latest refuge / Was to send him.
    • a. 1639, Henry Wotton, An Essay on the Education of Children, in the First Rudiments of Learning, London: T. Waller, published 1753, page 17:
      This is occaſioned by this, that too too often the Teaching of a Grammar School is the ordinary Refuge that deſperate Perſons as to any other Employment in good Learning betake themſelves to; whilſt but a few know themſelves ſuited with intellectual and moral Abilities, and fewer have that Encouragement, when they undertake it, their Pains deſerve.
  5. A refuge island.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

refuge (third-person singular simple present refuges, present participle refuging, simple past and past participle refuged)

  1. (intransitive) To return to a place of shelter.
    • 2011, Michael D. Gumert, Agustín Fuentes, Lisa Jones-Engel, Monkeys on the Edge:
      Among these macaques, although activity cycles are quite variable from location to location, refuging is a common characteristic.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To shelter; to protect.

Translations

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin refugium.

Pronunciation

Noun

refuge m (plural refuges)

  1. refuge

Descendants

  • Turkish: refüj

Further reading

Latin

Verb

refuge

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of refugiō

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French refuge, from Latin refūgium. Compare refute.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /rɛˈfiu̯d͡ʒ(ə)/

Noun

refuge (plural refuges)

  1. refuge (state or means of protection)
  2. refuge (place of protection)
  3. A protector; one who protects or safeguards.

Descendants

References

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin refugium. Doublet of refui.

Noun

refuge oblique singularm (oblique plural refuges, nominative singular refuges, nominative plural refuge)

  1. a refuge
  2. (figuratively) a protector or savior

Descendants