Shriners

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Shrine \Shrine\ (shr[imac]n), n. [OE. schrin, AS. scr[imac]n,
     from L. scrinium a case, chest, box.]
     1. A case, box, or receptacle, especially one in which are
        deposited sacred relics, as the bones of a saint.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. Any sacred place, as an altar, tromb, or the like.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Too weak the sacred shrine guard.     --Byron.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A place or object hallowed from its history or
        associations; as, a shrine of art.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Short for
  
     {Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine}, a
        secret fraternal organization professedly originated by
        one Kalif Alu, a son-in-law of Mohammed, at Mecca, in the
        year of the Hegira 25 (about 646 a. d.) In the modern
        order, established in the United States in 1872, only
        Knights Templars or thirty-second degree Masons are
        eligible for admission, though the order itself is not
        Masonic. A member of the order is popularly called a
        Shriner, and the order itself is sometimes called the
        {Shriners}.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]