ASYLUM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Asylum

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/əsˈaɪləm/ Listen

noun

Asylum n. (pl. E. asylums, L. asyla)

A sanctuary or place of refuge and protection, where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege. "So sacred was the church to some, that it had the right of an asylum or sanctuary." Note: The name was anciently given to temples, altars, statues of the gods, and the like. In later times Christian churches were regarded as asylums in the same sense.

Any place of retreat and security. "Earth has no other asylum for them than its own cold bosom."

An institution for the protection or relief of some class of destitute, unfortunate, or afflicted persons; as, an asylum for the aged, for the blind, or for the insane; a lunatic asylum; an orphan asylum.

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Etymology of 'Asylum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Asylum" Quotes from Famous Books

... altered present conditions, it will be true for all workers, on both sides of the sea, that not health alone but life itself are continuously endangered by the facts hedging about all labor. Dr. Stevens, the head of St. Luke's Insane Asylum in London, in a paper read before the Social ...

— Women Wage-Earners - Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future • Helen Campbell

... The patient was the only surviving child. She was brought up in a convent and orphan asylum until 11, when her father remarried. At 12 she had to go to work, hence she had but little education. She was bright, efficient, well liked by her employers (in one position five years). As to her peculiarities, she was thought to be, perhaps, a little headstrong, and was also described ...

— Benign Stupors - A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type • August Hoch

... sentenced to six years' transportation. Decided symptoms of insanity having exhibited themselves, instead of being sent on board the hulks, in conformity with the act 9th George IV., he was removed from Maidstone gaol to the county lunatic asylum. He remained here four years, and at the expiration of that period, Lord John Russell, in virtue of a power conferred on him as secretary of state by the same act, delivered him up to his friends upon their engaging to take care of him. His friends ill discharged their duty; ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... thousand francs to be offered every ten years for the solution of the grandest problem of mechanical science effected during the interval; to find dowries for all your cousins and second cousins, and finally to build an asylum on purpose for impoverished or ...

— The Magic Skin • Honore de Balzac

... "Whenever this asylum is violated and the spell contained in this urn broken, the people shown in the picture shall invade the land and overturn the throne of its kings. The rule of the Goths shall end and the whole country fall into the hands of ...

— Historical Tales - The Romance of Reality - Volume VII • Charles Morris

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