English Dictionary

ASYLUM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does asylum mean? 

ASYLUM (noun)
  The noun ASYLUM has 2 senses:

1. a shelter from danger or hardshipplay

2. a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced personplay

  Familiarity information: ASYLUM used as a noun is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


ASYLUM (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A shelter from danger or hardship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

asylum; refuge; sanctuary

Hypernyms ("asylum" is a kind of...):

shelter (a structure that provides privacy and protection from danger)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "asylum"):

harbor; harbour (a place of refuge and comfort and security)

safehold (a refuge from attack)

safe house (a house used as a hiding place or refuge by members of certain organizations)


Sense 2

Meaning:

A hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

asylum; insane asylum; institution; mental home; mental hospital; mental institution; psychiatric hospital

Hypernyms ("asylum" is a kind of...):

hospital; infirmary (a health facility where patients receive treatment)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "asylum"):

Bedlam; booby hatch; crazy house; cuckoo's nest; funny farm; funny house; loony bin; madhouse; nut house; nuthouse; sanatorium; snake pit (pejorative terms for an insane asylum)


 Context examples 


His request was that I would at once release him from the asylum and send him home.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And issuing from my asylum with precaution, I sought a back-stairs which conducted directly to the kitchen.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was dawn, and she quitted her asylum, that she might again endeavour to find my brother.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

You, a doctor—you are enough to drive a patient into an asylum.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But Mr. Dashwood rejected any but thrilling tales, and as thrills could not be produced except by harrowing up the souls of the readers, history and romance, land and sea, science and art, police records and lunatic asylums, had to be ransacked for the purpose.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Is it not possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an outbreak?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the whole effect is spoiled when I look at them—at Tetralani, five feet ten in her stocking feet and weighing a hundred and ninety pounds, and at Barillo, a scant five feet four, greasy-featured, with the chest of a squat, undersized blacksmith, and at the pair of them, attitudinizing, clasping their breasts, flinging their arms in the air like demented creatures in an asylum; and when I am expected to accept all this as the faithful illusion of a love-scene between a slender and beautiful princess and a handsome, romantic, young prince—why, I can't accept it, that's all.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You return home for to-night to your asylum, and see that all be well.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum carriage.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They found a miserable asylum in the cottage in Germany, where I discovered them.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Hawks will not pick out hawks' eyes." (English proverb)

"He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone." (Native American proverb, Seneca)

"Good manners is the greatest friend." (Arabic proverb)

"It hits like a grip on a pig." (Dutch proverb)



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