refuge

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A state of safety, protection or shelter.

   “Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these / Find place or refuge.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A place providing safety, protection or shelter.

   “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.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Something or someone turned to for safety or assistance; a recourse or resort.

   “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.”

4. (countable, uncountable)An expedient to secure protection or defence.

   “Their latest refuge / Was to send him.”

   “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.”

5. (countable, uncountable)A refuge island.
6. (countable, uncountable)A kind of daily prayer or recitation.

verb

1. (intransitive)To return to a place of shelter.

   “Among these macaques, although activity cycles are quite variable from location to location, refuging is a common characteristic.”

2. (obsolete, transitive)To shelter; to protect.