Search the Dictionary

Hidden things or secrets; privacy; sanctuary; as, the sacred penetralia of the home.

ithlessness; teachery. The ambition and perfidy of tyrants. Macaulay. His perfidy to this sacred engagement. DeQuincey.

An easy chariot or carriage, used by Roman ladies, and in which the vessels, etc., for sacred rites were carried.

The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. Shak. The days of the years of my pilgrimage. Gen. xlvii. 9.

e one's word and honor. We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. The Declaration of Independence.

To render ceremonially unclean; to disqualify or unfit for sacred use or service, or for social intercourse. Neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die. Num. xviii. 32. They have polluted themselves with blood. Lam. iv. 14.

One of the sacred college, in ancient Rome, which had the supreme jurisdiction over all matters of religion, at the head of which was the Pontifex Maximus. Dr. W. Smith.

A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans. Abp. Potter.

Priests, taken collectively; the order of men set apart for sacred offices; the order of priests.

A place of seclusion from company or observation; retreat; solitude; retirement. Her sacred privacies all open lie. Rowe.

The act of violating sacred things, or of treating them with contempt or irreverence; irreverent or too familiar treatment or use of what is sacred; desecration; as, the profanation of the Sabbath; the profanation of a sanctuary; the profanation of the name of God.

Not sacred or holy; not possessing peculiar sanctity; unconsecrated; hence, relating to matters other than sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or inspired; as, a profane place. "Profane authors." I. Disraeli. The profane wreath was suspended before the shrine. Gibbon.

One who treats sacred things with irreverence, or defiles what is holy; one who uses profane language. Hooker.

A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God. Humus devout and holy psalms Singing everlastingly. Milton.

A writer or composer of sacred songs; -- a title particularly applied to David and the other authors of the Scriptural psalms.

One who sings sacred songs; a psalmist.

The act, practice, or art of singing psalms or sacred songs; also, psalms collectively, or a collection of psalms.

A writer of psalms, or sacred songs and hymns.

The act or practice of writing psalms, or sacred songs.

One of a class of sacred Hindoo poetical works in the Sanskrit language which treat of the creation, destruction, and renovation of worlds, the genealogy and achievements of gods and heroes, the reigns of the Manus, and the transactions of their descendants. The principal Puranas are eighteen in number, and there are t…