Asylum

//əˈsaɪləm// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 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. 2
    a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person wordnet
  3. 3
    The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees). uncountable
  4. 4
    a shelter from danger or hardship wordnet
  5. 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."

Verb
  1. 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. 2
    to grant protection or refuge dated

    "We have..sheltered its paupers, asylumed its orphans, clothed its nakedness."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).

Etymology 2

From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).

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