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Asylum
Definitions
- 1 A place of safety or refuge. countable, uncountable
"All the busy concerns of daily existence were utterly abhorrent to me. I loathed the sound of others' voices—I hated to be mixed up with their petty routine of ordinary cares; here was an asylum offered to me—here I might lay down all the offices of humanity, and dwell beside that grave whose rest was now my only desire."
- 2 a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person wordnet
- 3 The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees). uncountable
- 4 a shelter from danger or hardship wordnet
- 5 A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill. countable, dated, uncountable
"Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose."
- 1 to place in an asylum dated
"It was she who in the last few years had spread abroad the notion that Charles Nagle, in the public interest, should be asylumed."
- 2 to grant protection or refuge dated
"We have..sheltered its paupers, asylumed its orphans, clothed its nakedness."
Etymology
From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).
From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).
See also for "asylum"
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