asylum

Definitions

1. A place of safety or refuge.
   countable, uncountable
2. A place of safety or refuge
3. The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees)
4. The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees).
   uncountable
5. A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill
6. A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill.
   countable, dated, uncountable
7. to place in an asylum
8. to grant protection or refuge

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“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⟳.”

CEFR level