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SACRED
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(often followed by 'to') devoted exclusively to a single use or purpose or person
Example:
a private office sacred to the President
Classified under:
Similar:
dedicated (devoted to a cause or ideal or purpose)
Derivation:
sacredness (the quality of being sacred)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Made or declared or believed to be holy; devoted to a deity or some religious ceremony or use
Example:
sanctified wine
Synonyms:
consecrated; sacred; sanctified
Classified under:
Similar:
holy (belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power)
Derivation:
sacredness (the quality of being sacred)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Worthy of religious veneration
Example:
Jerusalem's hallowed soil
Synonyms:
hallowed; sacred
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
holy (belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power)
Derivation:
sacredness (the quality of being sacred)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Concerned with religion or religious purposes
Example:
sacred music
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
taboo; tabu (forbidden to profane use especially in South Pacific islands)
sacral (of or relating to sacred rites)
reverend; sublime (worthy of adoration or reverence)
religious; spiritual (concerned with sacred matters or religion or the church)
quasi-religious (resembling something that is religious)
numinous (evincing the presence of a deity)
inviolable; inviolate; sacrosanct (must be kept sacred)
inspirational (imparting a divine influence on the mind and soul)
ineffable; unnameable; unspeakable; unutterable (too sacred to be uttered)
divine (devoted to or in the service or worship of a deity)
Also:
pious (having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity)
heavenly (of or belonging to heaven or god)
consecrate; consecrated; dedicated (solemnly dedicated to or set apart for a high or sacred purpose)
Antonym:
profane (not concerned with or devoted to religion)
Derivation:
sacredness (the quality of being sacred)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Worthy of respect or dedication
Example:
saw motherhood as woman's sacred calling
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
worthy (having worth or merit or value; being honorable or admirable)
Derivation:
sacredness (the quality of being sacred)
Context examples:
Sacred moments, when heart talked to heart in the silence of the night, turning affliction to a blessing, which chastened grief and strengthened love.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The expanded area, including the archipelago and its adjacent waters, is considered a sacred place for the Native Hawaiian community.
(National monument in Hawaii becomes world's largest marine protected area, NOAA)
The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire, though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
According to the researchers, sacrifice and mummification of sacred ibises was common in Egypt from about 664 b.c.e. to 250 c.e., from the twenty-sixth dynasty into the early period of Roman Egypt.
(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)
I knelt on the grass and kissed the earth and with quivering lips exclaimed, By the sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wander near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear; and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to pursue the dæmon who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I was simple enough to think, that because my FAITH was plighted to another, there could be no danger in my being with you; and that the consciousness of my engagement was to keep my heart as safe and sacred as my honour.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
On the other hand, if all should go well (which may kind God Almighty grant!), then if by any chance this paper should be still undestroyed and should fall into your hands, I conjure you, by all you hold sacred, by the memory of your dear mother, and by the love which had been between us, to hurl it into the fire and to never give one thought to it again.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to what straits his majesty’s revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable; that the secretary’s expedient of putting out your eyes, was so far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is manifest from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat; that his sacred majesty and the council, who are your judges, were, in their own consciences, fully convinced of your guilt, which was a sufficient argument to condemn you to death, without the formal proofs required by the strict letter of the law.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
On the other hand, it was Madge who fed him; also it was she who ruled the kitchen, and it was by her favor, and her favor alone, that he was permitted to come within that sacred precinct.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
The study has emphasized that the use of large megalithic funerary structures shows, for the first time, the desire of human societies of transcending their present by creating a sacred landscape based on collective memory and the cult of ancestors.
(The necropolis of El Barranquete in Níjar (Almería), proven to have been used for funerary rituals throughout the Bronze Age, University of Granada)
