(n.) A raised structure (as a square or oblong erection of stone or wood) on which sacrifices are offered or incense burned to a deity.
(n.) In the Christian church, a construction of stone, wood, or other material for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist; the communion table.
Example Sentences:
(1) From Africa, the archbishop of Kenya warned "the devil has entered the church", while a few days before the ceremony Robinson received a postcard from England, depicting the high altar of Durham cathedral and bearing the message: "You fornicating, lecherous pig."
(2) In its proposals the MoJ is displaying a callous disregard for the rights of its citizens, as client choice and quality of legal service have been sacrificed on the altar of price competition.
(3) Because of course nothing is more destructive of the sanctity of his own vocation than the suggestion that we simply don't need this kind of conservation – if that's what it really is – at all; that on the contrary, the entire "relaunch" is simply the bastard offspring of an orgiastic union between Mammon and science, consummated on the Stonehenge altar stone and observed by the fee-paying public.
(4) He thought he would be his altar boy but it turned out that Ahmadinejad wanted to be the priest."
(5) From glossy magazines to giant billboards and the celebrity culture we obsessively consume, all kneel at the altar of the airbrushed.
(6) His bedridden mother stumbled to her feet Tuesday to pray at the altar set up where he slept.
(7) Facebook Twitter Pinterest People pray in front of an altar especially set up Tama’s funeral in Kinokawa City, Wakayama prefecture.
(8) During the original trial, much emphasis was placed on the blasphemy of the women doing their dance right in front of the altar.
(9) The volte face was a result of Russian blackmail, the Lithuanian president's office said as senior officials in Brussels said Yanukovych was sacrificing the hopes and wishes of most of his countrymen on the altar of Russian money and contracts.
(10) Because by then I had learned, rubbing polish into an altar, that active citizenship is essential for any functioning democracy.
(11) Economics is thus humiliated on the altar of politics, and principle is sacrificed to expediency.
(12) Dr David Petts, a lecturer in archaeology at Durham University, said: "We found the Binchester head close to where a small Roman altar was found two years ago.
(13) How dangerously flimsy would one's marriage have to be before it felt threatened by other couples signing a different piece of paper – or, indeed, by a same sex couple following you to the altar?
(14) If a rock group invaded Westminster Abbey and gravely insulted a religious or ethnic minority before the high altar, we all know that ministers would howl for "exemplary punishment" and judges would oblige.
(15) The temple originally had a sunken nave flanked by seven symbolic pairs of pillars leading to the altar, a ritual well and raised seating on either side.
(16) In a country where voters do not want to sacrifice social welfare to the altar of austerity, analysts warn none of the main candidates are going far enough to slash spending.
(17) Though the Queen will not wear St Edward's crown, the heavy gold crown first used for Charles II's coronation, at Tuesday's service, it will be brought from its home at the Tower of London to rest on the abbey's high altar, along with the Ampulla, the hollow gold eagle from which oil was poured to anoint her in 1953.
(18) When the Dalai Lama came to collect his cheque at a ceremony in St Paul's Cathedral, eight Buddhist monks sat chanting in front of the high altar as the nave filled up.
(19) Dominique Venner , 78, a far-right essayist and historian took his life in front of the altar at Notre Dame on Tuesday after writing a blog condemning France's recently passed law allowing same-sex marriage and adoption.
(20) "Don't tell me that this Compeyson is the man who left Miss Havisham at the altar, that he is now searching for you in London, and that you are actually Estella's father."
Religious
Definition:
(a.) Of or pertaining to religion; concerned with religion; teaching, or setting forth, religion; set apart to religion; as, a religious society; a religious sect; a religious place; religious subjects, books, teachers, houses, wars.
(a.) Possessing, or conforming to, religion; pious; godly; as, a religious man, life, behavior, etc.
(a.) Scrupulously faithful or exact; strict.
(a.) Belonging to a religious order; bound by vows.
(n.) A person bound by monastic vows, or sequestered from secular concern, and devoted to a life of piety and religion; a monk or friar; a nun.
Example Sentences:
(1) You can see where the religious meme sprung from: when the world was an inexplicable and scary place, a belief in the supernatural was both comforting and socially adhesive.
(2) Our parents had no religious beliefs and there will be no funeral."
(3) With respect to family environment, a history of sexual abuse was associated with perceptions that families of origin had less cohesion, more conflict, less emphasis on moral-religious matters, less emphasis on achievement, and less of an orientation towards intellectual, cultural, and recreational pursuits.
(4) In the process, the DfE's definition of extremism has shifted from actual bomb-throwers to religious conservatives.
(5) Indeed, the nationalist and religious right bloc merely held steady , gaining just one seat.
(6) There can’t be something, someone that could fix this and chooses not to.” Years of agnosticism and an open attitude to religious beliefs thrust under the bus, acknowledging the shame that comes from sitting down with those the world forgot.
(7) Maryam Namazie, an Iranian-born campaigner against religious laws, had been invited to speak to the Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists Society next month.
(8) And of course, as the articles are shared far and wide across the apparently much-hated web, they become gospel to those who read them and unfortunately become quasi-religious texts to musicians of all stripes who blame the internet for everything that is wrong with their careers.
(9) Males scored higher than females on theoretical and lower on religious scales.
(10) After excluding isonymous matings the chi-square values for unique and nonunique surname pairs remained significant for both religious groups.
(11) Religious efforts to address the issue have also been complicit in absolving men of their crimes, objectifying women and doing more harm than good with campaigns that blame women for the phenomenon.
(12) However, social support significantly correlated with depression and there was some indication that the type of institutional setting and frequency of religious participation also interacts with the level of depression.
(13) Waco, Texas, will forever be known for the siege that began in February 1993 when agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided a compound owned by the Branch Davidian religious sect to investigate allegations of weapons hoarding.
(14) But whether it arose from religious belief, from a noblesse oblige or from a sense of solidarity, duty in Britain has been, to most people, the foundation of rights rather than their consequence.
(15) There are long-running tensions between the state and the region's large Uighur Muslim population, with many angered by cultural and religious restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities and some aspiring to independence for what they call East Turkestan.
(16) Hillary Clinton said that people who are pro-life have to change our religious beliefs,” said Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal in a statement released by the American Future project , which is backing his undeclared presidential campaign.
(17) The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest organised political movement, added its voice to the chorus of discontent, accusing Scaf of contradicting 'all human, religious and patriotic values' with their callousness and warning that the revolution that overthrew former president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year was able to rise again.
(18) But first he flew to Saudi Arabia to make the religiously encouraged pilgrimage to Mecca; he found himself stranded in Bahrain after he was unable to enter Kenya.
(19) In the afternoon he reads historical or religious books and novels.
(20) Three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot are facing two years in a prison colony after they were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, in a case seen as the first salvo in Vladimir Putin's crackdown on opposition to his rule.