refuge

noun

1. 1

   A state of safety, protection or shelter.

   Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these / Find place or refuge.

2. 2

   A place providing safety, protection or shelter.

   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. 3

   Something or someone turned to for safety or assistance; a recourse or resort.

   Since its conception, the European Union has been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world.

4. 4

   An expedient to secure protection or defence.

   Their latest refuge / Was to send him.

   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. 5

   A refuge island.

6. 6

   A kind of daily prayer or recitation.

verb

1. 1

   To return to a place of shelter.

   Among these macaques, although activity cycles are quite variable from location to location, refuging is a common characteristic.

2. 2

   obsoleteTo shelter; to protect.

Forms

plural

refuges

past tense

refuged

past participle

refuged

present participle

refuging

third person singular

refuges