(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."
Rite
Definition:
(n.) The act of performing divine or solemn service, as established by law, precept, or custom; a formal act of religion or other solemn duty; a solemn observance; a ceremony; as, the rites of freemasonry.
Example Sentences:
(1) The Vatican's spokesman Federico Lombardi insisted the rite took place in "a specific situation in which excluding the girls would have been inopportune in light of the simple aim of communicating a message of love to all".
(2) If that is not possible, they should issue visas on an urgent basis for their families so that they can travel to the US and perform the last rites."
(3) The challenge of eliminating the practice in a culture that sees it as a rite of passage is huge, but the stakes couldn't be higher.
(4) Annually thousands of teenage boys from the Xhosa tribe embark on a secretive rite of passage in Eastern Cape province, spending up to a month in seclusion where they study, undergo circumcision by a traditional surgeon, and apply white clay to their bodies.
(5) Chinese authorities in Aba refused to allow locals to carry out traditional funeral rites for Gepey so as not to provide an opportunity for Tibetans to gather and protest, Free Tibet said.
(6) At the same time, only half of millennials have a driver’s licence, a rite of passage for prior generations.
(7) It is devastating that jail is seen as a rite of passage for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, part of the natural order of things.” Indigenous prisoner who killed himself wasn't in a 'safe' cell despite being at risk Read more He said a Labor government would fund three trials – in a city, a regional town and a remote community – of “justice reinvestment” programs, “redirecting funds spent on justice system to prevention and diversionary programs to address underlying causes of offending with disproportionately high levels of incarceration”.
(8) The authors present their experience with 28 patients who had incurred unstable thoracic or lumbar spine fractures and who were intraoperatively stabilized with the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital (TSRH) universal instrumentation system.
(9) Rigorous training Mentors receive rigorous training and use a "rites of passage" approach where mentees are encouraged to form strong and enduring bonds to the older men who guide them.
(10) He may also have been giving the last rites, but he picked up the rifle."
(11) You need to go through rites of passage that only a man can do.
(12) For young people in Hartlepool, one of the most deprived parts of the country, going to university is more than just a rite of passage.
(13) In the summer of 1982, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital (Dallas, TX, U.S.A.) sponsored a camp for paraplegic adolescents.
(14) The "teenager" has proved a highly workable rite of passage for the past 70 years.
(15) Are we talking about a religious rite--or about child abuse?
(16) His life reads like a blockbuster of its own – after Tribal Rites he continued writing, true stories mostly, and in 1983 was arrested for conspiring to import millions of dollars worth of heroin and cocaine into the US.
(17) Child marriage: we must urge action to stop girls' initiation rites | Persilia Muianga Read more The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, promised to end child marriage of under-15s by 2021 and reduce by more than one-third the number of girls married between the ages of 15 and 18, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the practice by 2041.
(18) All patients were treated by bracing at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital from 1970 to 1980.
(19) While Respond is supportive of people with learning disabilities who are able to give consent and do make the decision to get married freely, Khan is keen to stress the importance of providing support for those who may be pressured into doing so: “Through our referral service, we aim to work towards removing labels which further victimise people, taking each case on its own merit and working with people to fully understand what is actually happening within each situation.” She explains how nuanced some of the cases can be: Within many families there can be a belief that marriage is a rite of passage and some families may even perhaps wish or hope that it will “cure” the person of learning disabilities.
(20) It has long been a painful rite of passage for German schoolchildren – learning "die Schreibschrift", a fiddly form of joined-up handwriting all pupils are expected to have mastered by the time they leave primary school.