refuge

From Old French refuge, from Latin refugium, from re- + fugiō (“flee”). Doublet of refugium.

• Audio (US)

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• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛfjuːdʒ/

refuge (countable and uncountable, plural refuges)

1. A state of safety, protection or shelter.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these / Find place or refuge.

2. A place providing safety, protection or shelter.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     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.

3. Something or someone turned to for safety or assistance; a recourse or resort.
   • 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian:

     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.

4. An expedient to secure protection or defence.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Their latest refuge / Was to send him.

   • a. 1639, Henry Wotton, An Essay on the Education of Children, in the First Rudiments of Learning, London: T. Waller, published 1753, page 17:

     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.

5. A refuge island.

• haven
• sanctuary
• zoar

• refugee
• refugium
• refugitive

refuge (third-person singular simple present refuges, present participle refuging, simple past and past participle refuged)

1. (intransitive) To return to a place of shelter.
   • 2011, Michael D. Gumert, ‎Agustín Fuentes, ‎Lisa Jones-Engel, Monkeys on the Edge

     Among these macaques, although activity cycles are quite variable from location to location, refuging is a common characteristic.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To shelter; to protect.

• Fugere

From Latin refugium.

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.fyʒ/

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refuge m (plural refuges)

1. refuge

• “refuge” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

refuge

1. second-person singular present active imperative of refugiō

• reffuge
• refiuge
• refuje

From Latin refugium.

refuge m (oblique plural refuges, nominative singular refuges, nominative plural refuge)

1. a refuge
2. (figuratively) a protector or savior

• English: refuge (borrowed)
• French: refuge