▪ I. shrine, n.
(ʃraɪn)
Forms: 1–2 scrin, scryn, 3 s(c)hrin, ssrin, ssryn, 4–5 shryn, 4–6 schrine, schryne, 4–7 shryne, 5 schryn, schrene, shrene, 6 shreene, 6– shrine.
[OE. scr{iacu}n str. n., corresp. to OFris. skrîn (WFris. skryn chest, skrine coffin), MLG. schrîn, MDu. and WFlem. schrîne f., Du. schrijn n., OHG. scrîni, scrîne n. (MHG. schrîn n. and m., G. schrein m.), ON. skr{iacu}n n. (Sw., Da. skrin); ad. L. scrīnium case or chest for books or papers.
Unexplained variants with e occur in OFris. skrên, MLG., MDu. schrein, LG. schrên, WFlem. schrêne.
L. scrīnium is represented in Romanic by OF. escrin (see scrine), F. écrin, Pr. escrin, It. scrigno, Sp., Pg. escrinio, and in OSl. skriniya, skrina, Lith. skrine, Russ. skrin.]
† 1. A box, coffer; a cabinet, chest. (Cf. scrine.)
In OE. and ME. applied to the ark of the covenant.
| c 1000 ælfric Josh. iii. 8 Þa sacerdas, þa þe þæt scrin [Vulg. arcam] berað. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xii. 6 Forþam þe he wæs þeof & hæfde scrin [Vulg. loculos]. c 1150 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 546/29 Archa, scrin. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 109 Þe schryne of þe testament [arcam testamenti]. 1398 ― Barth. de P.R. xiii. ix. (Tollem. MS.), Þe schryne of oure lorde [ed. 1582, the Arke]. 1516 Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869) I. 161 Item, in the compertas of Craufurdis ane standand bed, and ane schryne. 1560 Stirling Burgh Rec. (1887) I. 75 Ane schryne but the lid. 1658 Phillips, Shrine, a chest or cabinet. |
2. a. The box, casket, or other repository in which the relics of a saint are preserved. Also, a tomb-like erection of rich workmanship, enclosing the relics of a saint.
| c 1000 ælfric Saints' Lives xi. 275 Þa ᵹebrohte se bisceop ealle þa halᵹan ban on ᵹelimplicum scrynum. c 1000 ― Hom. (Th.) II. 426 Þa wolde se casere wyrcan him eallum gyldene scryn. a 1122 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1070 Hi namen þære twa gildene scrines & .ix. seolferne. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. 37/125 Þulke daye is bodi was in-to schrine i-bore. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9851 Þulke ȝer al so Seint egwine at euesham in ssrine was verst ido. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 48, I nolde fonge a ferþing for seynt Thomas schrine. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 5592 Of schene schemerand gold as it a schrine ware. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 4265 Byfore hurre shrene mekeliche he knelede doune. c 1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Gilbert xxxviii, Þe schrine..is..born a-boute on þe schulderis of princes and lordis. 1551 Sir J. Williams Accompte (Abbotsf. Club) 1 The defacinge and takinge downe of shrynes. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, ii. i. 63 A blinde man at Saint Albones Shrine,..hath receiu'd his sight. a 1638 Mede Wks. (1672) 677 The Miracles at the Shrines and Sepulchres of the holy Martyrs. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xlv. IV. 455 The shrines of the apostles were guarded by miracles and invisible terrors. 1834 L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 217 The exhibition of the relics took place..and as each shrine was elevated, every knee touched the earth. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 24 It was a national as well as a religious feeling that drew great multitudes to the shrine of Becket. |
| Prov. phr. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 553 Fare-wel shryne of whom þe seynt is oute. |
b. In extended application: A receptacle containing an object of religious veneration; occas. a niche for sacred images.
| 1526 Tindale Acts xix. 24 A goldsmyth, which made silver schrynes [Gr. ναούς, Vulg. ædes; Wyclif housis] for Diana. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 58 On certain days of the year this crucifix is..exposed to public view;..seven persons having in their custody as many different keys of the shrine in which it is kept. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian vi, She passed several shrines and images half hid among the shrubs and the cliffs. 1894 J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 43 The bell of any famous saint..was enclosed in a shrine, made in its own form. |
† c. fig. An object of veneration. Obs.
| c 1400 Beryn 1114 So excellent of bewte, þat she myȝt be shryne To all othir vymmen. |
d. The part of a church in which a shrine stands. Cf. feretory 3.
| 1833 Raine Brief Acc. Durham Cath. 50 Let us now enter the shrine. 1850 Parker's Gloss. Terms Archit. I. 427 Modern writers often erroneously apply the word shrine to the chapel or church in which the real shrine is deposited. |
3. A case or casket for a dead body; also, a tomb or cenotaph of an elaborate kind.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 672 Sche..made hire subtyl werkemen make a schryne Of alle the rubyis & the stonis fyne..that sche coude espie. 1613 Purchas Pilgr. (1614) 660 They cast their dead into the Riuer, others reserued them at home in glasse shrines. 1613 R. C. Table Alph., Shrine, a remembrance for the dead. 1720 Pope Epit. Harcourt 1 To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near. 1824 W. Fowler List Subj. Engravings, The Percy Shrine (Beverley). 1829 Scott Old Mort. Introd., This peculiar shrine of the Whig martyrs is very much honoured by their descendants. |
4. transf. a. That which encloses, enshrines, or screens, or in which something dwells.
| a 1400 Chaucer To Rosemounde 1 Madame, ye ben of al beaute shryne As fer as cercled is the mapamonde. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. iv. (1912) 172 You living powres enclosed in stately shrine Of growing trees. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. Jas. III, Wks. (1711) 60 Favourites are shrines to shadow princes from their people. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 360 Of Light by farr the greater part he [sc. God] took, Transplanted from her [sc. moon's] cloudie Shrine, and plac'd In the Suns Orb. 1813 Byron Giaour 106 Clime of the unforgotten brave!..Shrine of the mighty! 1874 A. O'Shaughnessy Music & Moonlight 127 The heart was a shrine For that memory to dwell in divine. |
† b. Used for: An enclosing membrane. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxvi. (Bodl. MS.), Aboute þe herte is a manere cloþing þat hatte thee schryne and þe coofer of þe herte. |
5. a. A place where worship is offered or devotions are paid to a saint or deity; a temple, church.
| 1629 Milton Hymn Nativ. xix, Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. vii. 43 This tusky Boar Young Mycon offers, Delia, to thy Shrine. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 78 Seva Gi was departed thence to Purtaabgur, to visit the Shrine of Bowany. 1738 Gray Propertius i. 2 Before the Goddess' shrine we too, love's vot'ries, bend. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. India I. 163 The pilgrims [distinguished] by bearing some symbol of the god to whose shrine they are going. 1880 L. Oliphant Land of Gilead iii. 80 In the East it is a common thing for the same shrine to serve the purpose of many succeeding religions. 1891 Farrar Darkn. & Dawn i, Behind this temple was the shrine of Vesta. 1905 Byles Life R. S. Hawker v. 42 The position of the Church, like that of all ancient Shrines in England, was chosen and fixed on certain principles. |
¶ b. In the following quots. commonly explained as ‘an image (of a saint or god)’. The passages seem, however, to be merely somewhat strained figurative applications of sense 5. Cf. 2 c.
| 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 194 Offer pure incense to so pure a shrine. 1596 ― Merch. V. ii. vii. 40 From the foure corners of the earth they come To kisse this shrine, this mortall breathing Saint. 1611 ― Cymb. v. v. 164 For Feature, laming The Shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerua. |
c. fig. in contexts referring to the veneration or idolizing of some person or thing.
| 1575 Gascoigne Kenelworth Wks. 1910 II. 109 It can not be that such a Saint to see Can long in shrine her seemely selfe so shroude. 1595 Caxton's Blanchardyn liv. 210 The neighboring Princes, which long had bent their deuotions to the sweet Saint which kept her shrine in Tormaday. 1605 B. Jonson Volpone i. i, Good morning to the day; and, next, my gold: Open the shrine, that I may see my saint. 1690 Temple Ess. ii. Poetry 1, The Two common Shrines, to which most Men offer up the Application of their Thoughts and their Lives, are Profit and Pleasure. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iv. 105 Honour forbid! at whose unrivall'd shrine Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign. 1750 Gray Elegy 71 To..heap the Shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 1808 W. Wilson Hist. Diss. Ch. II. 57 He was too consciencious to sacrifice his principles at the shrine of worldly advantage or emolument. 1853 ‘Dow, Jr.’ in Jerdan Yankee Humour 88 Ye grey-haired worshippers at the shrine of Mammon! 1904 Paul Mod. Eng. I. Introd. 13 He [sc. Mill] kept the lamp burning in the Benthamite shrine. |
6. attrib. and Comb.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. 13 Hee throngs in shryne clowd [infert se sæptus nebula]. Ibid. iv. 67 The slip Ascanius (for sainct thee shrinecase adoring) Shee cols for the father. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 240 If these [e.g. crowns] Be wanting, a less Shrine-robber will seize On a gilt Hercules his thigh. 1869 Browning Ring & Bk. xi. 572 ‘Such was its virtue!’ twangs the Sacristan, Holding the shrine-box up. 1876 J. S. Brewer Engl. Studies (1881) 107 The exquisite tracery of their screens and shrine-work. |
b. With reference to the Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Cf. Shriner.
| 1968 Chicago Tribune 7 July i. 1/1 More than 2,500 Shriners gathered..to kick off the 94th annual Shrine convention. 1974 Sunday Advocate-News (Barbados) 3 Mar. 11/4 [The] Prime Minister..received members of the Manito Shrine Club. 1976 Columbus (Montana) News 27 May 6/3 Tom participated in the clown unit of the Shrine Ceremonial parade. |
▪ II. shrine, v.
(ʃraɪn)
Forms: 3 ssryne, ssrine, 3–4 schrine, 4–5 schryne, 4–6 shryne, 7 chrine, 6– shrine.
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To enclose (relics) in a shrine; to provide (a saint or deity) with a shrine or sanctuary. Now rare.
| c 1290 Beket 376 in S. Eng. Leg. 117 In þulke ȝere seint thomas schrinede seint edward At westmunstre. Ibid. 175/2406 Seint thomas..onder eorþe he lay, Are þat he I-schrined were, wel mani a long day. c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 627, I wolde I hadde thy coillons in myn hond In stide of Relikes... They shul be shryned in an hogges toord. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 69 Þe fame þerof come vnto þe monasterie þer Saynt Austyn was shrynyd. 1526 R. Whitford Martiloge 49 Theyr two bodyes were ioyned bothe togyder, & so shryned at rome by myracle. 1550 Bale Engl. Votaryes ii. L ij b, Saint Wyllyam of Norwyche, a martyr, whych was ther shryned in Christes church abbeye. 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. iii. (1636) 93 To take up the body of Edith..and to shrine it. 1702 Pope Dryope 87 Believe a Goddess shrin'd in ev'ry tree. 1803 Southey Queen Orraca 60 Our brother Pedro brings them here, In Coimbra to be shrined. |
† b. phr. to shrine (a person) for a saint: to venerate or proclaim him as a saint. Also fig.
| 1530 Tindale Pract. Prelates C vij, Shryninge them alwaye for sayntes which purchased them preuileges or fought for their libertyes. 1591 Lyly Endym. v. iii, You must nowe tell who Eumenides shrineth for his Saint. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 27 Setting forth Lady Ignorance for a great Sainct..and shrining her unto them for the true mother of Devotion. |
† c. To canonize (fig.). Obs.
| a 1400 Chaucer Agst. Women Unconst. 15 Ye might be shryned, for your brotelnesse, Bet than Dalyda, Creseide, or Candace. 1878 W. C. Smith Hilda among Broken Gods ii. 177 What, if heaven should be wroth at my shrining and sainting a man, Sinful and mortal as I? |
† d. To set up as a sacred offering. Obs.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad x. ad fin., Poore Dolons spoiles Vlysses had; who shrin'd them on his sterne. |
† 2. To entomb. Obs.
| 1567 R. Edwards Damon & Pithias (1571) D j b, Shrine me in clay aliue, some good man stop mine eye. 1567–8 Gismond of Salerne v. iii. 40 (Cunliffe), And in one tombe our bodies bothe to shrine. 1570–1 in B.L. Ball. & Broadsides (1867) 35 The Nortons' bones should be so shrynd That now hanges wauering in the wynd. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 703 His ashes..were carried to Rome and shrined there in the monument of the Antonines. |
3. To enclose, envelop, engird, as a shrine or sanctuary does the body or the image of a saint.
| 1577 Grange Golden Aphrod. F iv, Ye Muses nine With grace deuine My wittes to shrine Giue not consent. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis Ded. A ij, Thee pyth, that is shrind vp wythin thee barck and bodye of so exquisit..a discourse. 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat., Defiance to Envie 21 Nor earthen pot wont secret death to shrine. 1648 Crashaw Delights of Muses Wks. (1904) 140 So sweet the Temple was that shrin'd The Sacred sweetnesse of his mind. 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 672 Th' Almightie Father where he sits Shrin'd in his Sanctuarie of Heav'n secure. 1728 Pope Dunc. iii. 263 Booth in his cloudy tabernacle shrin'd [as Harlequin]. 1820 Keats Lamia ii. 190 Thus loaded with a feast the tables stood, Each shrining in the midst the image of a God. a 1851 Moir Poems (1852) II. 363 A patch of sky..shrining a star Magnificent. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxiv. 286 Tempe, shrined around in shadowy woods o'erhanging. 1871 Rossetti Poems, Portrait iii, In painting her I shrined her face Mid mystic trees. |
b. To enclose, shut up (an object) in a case; † hence, to treasure.
| 1586 A. Day Engl. Secretorie ii. (1625) 82 What auaileth it to shrine so much this vaine beautie, which..is euery day in danger? 1662 Hibbert Body of Div. i. 115 A liveless peece of earth [viz. money] is his master, yea his God, which he shrines up in his chest. 1886 Conder Syrian Stone-Lore iv. (1896) 166 The oldest [copy of the Pentateuch], shrined in its silver case and bound in green. |
† c. To enfold, embrace. Obs. rare.
| 1605 Chapman All Fooles iii. 17 Ist possible that I..Should shrine within mine armes so bright a goddesse? |
† d. refl. To conceal oneself. Obs. rare.
| 1570 T. Preston in Old Ballads (Percy Soc.) 71 Loth was I [a fly] to go out, And shrind my selfe under a brome. |
† e. ? To cover with rich ornament. Obs. rare
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis, etc. 95 An armoure..With gould ritchlye shrined [Aen. viii. 436 arma..auroque polibant]. |
† f. To bury (a sword) in a person's body.
| 1614 Gorges Lucan vii. 276 If any should his kinsman finde, And in his breast his sword hath shrin'd. |
4. To enshrine in one's heart or thoughts.
| 1579 Lyly Euphues 32, I haue shrined thee in my heart for a trustie friende. 1587 Turberv. Trag. Tales 15 b, The idoll that was shrinde within his brest. c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon vi. (1630) C 4 Loue..straight diued into my heart, And there did shrine the Idea of your selfe. 1607 B. Barnes Divils Charter iii. ii. F 1 He that aliue was shrined in my brest, Now dead liues yet intombed in my thoughts. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam i. xxiv, When that majestic theme Shrined in her heart found utterance. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. i. iv. 88 The man of real genius..has the feeling of truth already shrined in his own breast. 1863 Mrs. Gaskell Sylvia's L. xi, It was waste of time and life to keep her shrined in the dearest sanctuary of his being. |
† 5. refl. and intr. To dwell as in a shrine; to be ‘tabernacled’. Obs.
| c 1400 Langland's P. Pl. A. i. 162 (Univ. Coll. MS.), Chastite wiþouten charite wurþ schryned in helle. 1592 Kyd Sp. Trag. iii. vi, The soule, that shoulde be shrinde in heauen. 1602 Thomas Ld. Cromwell v. v, My soule is shrinde with heauens celestiall couer. 1614 Gorges Lucan ix. 387 Fild with grace diuine, That in his secret soule did shrine [tacita quem mente gerebat]. |