# refuge
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English refuge, from Old French refuge, from Latin refugium, from re- + fugiō (“flee”). Doublet of refugium.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɹɛfjuːd͡ʒ/
** Audio (US):(file)
** Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

refuge (countable and uncountable, plural refuges)
* A state of safety, protection or shelter.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these / Find place or refuge.
* A place providing safety, protection or shelter.
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
* Something or someone turned to for safety or assistance; a recourse or resort.
** 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian:Since its conception, the European Union has been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world.
* An expedient to secure protection or defence.
** c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:Their latest refuge / Was to send him.
** a. 1639, Henry Wotton, An Essay on the Education of Children, in the First Rudiments of Learning, London: T. Waller, published 1753, page 17:This is occaſioned by this, that too too often the Teaching of a Grammar School is the ordinary Refuge that deſperate Perſons as to any other Employment in good Learning betake themſelves to; whilﬅ but a few know themſelves ſuited with intellectual and moral Abilities, and fewer have that Encouragement, when they undertake it, their Pains deſerve.
* A refuge island.

#### Synonyms

* haven
* sanctuary
* zoar

#### Derived terms

* city of refuge
* harbor of refuge
* harbour of refuge
* house of refuge
* pedestrian refuge
* refugee
* refugitive
* refugium
* take refuge
* wildlife refuge
* women's refuge

#### Translations
### Verb

refuge (third-person singular simple present refuges, present participle refuging, simple past and past participle refuged)
* (intransitive) To return to a place of shelter.
** 2011, Michael D. Gumert, Agustín Fuentes, Lisa Jones-Engel, Monkeys on the Edge:Among these macaques, although activity cycles are quite variable from location to location, refuging is a common characteristic.
* (transitive, obsolete) To shelter; to protect.

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* Fugere

## French
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin refugium.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʁə.fyʒ/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

refuge m (plural refuges)
* refuge

#### Related terms

* réfugier

#### Descendants

* → Turkish: refüj

### Further reading

* “refuge”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Latin
### Verb

refuge
* second-person singular present active imperative of refugiō

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* reffuge, reyfuge

### Etymology

From Old French refuge, from Latin refūgium. Compare refute.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /rɛˈfiu̯d͡ʒ(ə)/

### Noun

refuge (plural refuges)
* refuge (state or means of protection)
* refuge (place of protection)
* A protector; one who protects or safeguards.

#### Descendants

* English: refuge

#### References

* “refū̆ǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

## Old French
### Alternative forms

* reffuge, refiuge, refuje

### Etymology

From Latin refugium. Doublet of refui.

### Noun

refuge oblique singular, m (oblique plural refuges, nominative singular refuges, nominative plural refuge)
* a refuge
* (figuratively) a protector or savior

#### Descendants

* French: refuge
** → Turkish: refüj
* → Middle English: refuge, reffuge, reyfuge
** English: refuge