n.
- Something that provides cover or protection, as from the weather.
- A refuge; a haven.
- An establishment that provides temporary housing for homeless people.
- The state of being covered or protected.
v., -tered, -ter·ing, -ters. v.tr.
- To provide cover or protection for.
- To invest (income) to protect it from taxation.
To take cover; find refuge.
[Perhaps from Middle English sheltron, tight battle formation, from Old English scildtruma : scield, shield; see shield + truma, troop.]
shelterer shel'ter·er n.shelterless shel'ter·less adj.
SYNONYMS shelter, cover, retreat, refuge, asylum, sanctuary. These nouns refer to places affording protection, as from danger, or to the state of being protected. Shelter usually implies a covered or enclosed area that protects temporarily, as from injury or attack: built a shelter out of pine and hemlock boughs. Cover suggests something that conceals: traveled under cover of darkness. Retreat applies chiefly to a secluded place to which one retires for meditation, peace, or privacy: a rural cabin that served as a weekend retreat. Refuge suggests a place of escape from pursuit or from difficulties that beset one: "The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a refuge from home life" (George Bernard Shaw). Asylum adds to refuge the idea of legal protection or of immunity from arrest: "O! receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind" (Thomas Paine). Sanctuary denotes a sacred or inviolable place of refuge: political refugees finding sanctuary in a monastery.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
