Refuge Meaning
/ˈɹɛfjuːd͡ʒ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA state of safety, protection or shelter.
nounA place providing safety, protection or shelter.
Sentence Examples
My room is an inviolable refuge.
Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.
A further 300 people have taken refuge in the US embassy.
CEFR Practice Quiz
During the storm, the hikers found ____ in a small cave to stay dry.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The hikers took ____ in a mountain hut as the storm intensified around them.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English refuge, from Old French refuge, from Latin refugium, from re- + fugiō (“flee”). Doublet of refugium.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these / Find place or refuge."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
"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."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"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."
— 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian:
"Their latest refuge / Was to send him."
— c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
"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."
— a. 1639, Henry Wotton, An Essay on the Education of Children, in the First Rudiments of Learning, London: T. Waller, published 1753, page 17:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
During the storm, the hikers found ____ in a small cave to stay dry.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The hikers took ____ in a mountain hut as the storm intensified around them.