<B>sanctuary, </B>noun, pl. <B>-aries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a sacred place; holy spot; place where sacred things are kept. A church is a sanctuary; so was the ancient Hebrew temple at Jerusalem. <DD><B> 2a. </B>the part of a church around the altar. <DD><B> b. </B>the most sacred part of any place of worship. <DD><B> c. </B>the sacred place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the temple at Jerusalem. <DD><B> 3. </B>a place of refuge or protection. <BR> <I>Ex. a wildlife sanctuary.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>refuge or protection. <BR> <I>Ex. The escaped prisoner found sanctuary in the temple. (Figurative.) The cabin provided sanctuary from the rain.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sanctum">
<B>sanctum, </B>noun, pl. <B>-tums,</B> (Rare) <B>-ta.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a sacred place. <DD><B> 2. </B>a private room or office where a person can be undisturbed. (SYN) study. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) anything set apart as sacred. </DL>
<A NAME="sanctumsanctorum">
<B>sanctum sanctorum,<DL COMPACT><DD> 1. </B>the holy of holies. <DD><B> 2. </B>an especially private place; inner sanctum (often humorous in use). <BR> <I>Ex. ... When she expressed an interest in bebop he had unearthed the inner sanctum sanctorum of that art in Harlem and taken her there (William Ard).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sanctus">
<B>Sanctus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a hymn beginning "Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus" in Latin and "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts" in English, ending the preface of the Mass or Eucharistic service. <DD><B> 2. </B>a musical setting of this. </DL>
<A NAME="sanctusbell">
<B>Sanctus bell,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the bell rung to signal the more solemn portions of the Mass in the Roman Catholic Church, usually first rung at the Sanctus. </DL>
<A NAME="sand">
<B>sand, </B>noun, verb, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>tiny grains of worndown or disintegrated rock, mainly siliceous, finer than gravel. <BR> <I>Ex. the sand of the seashore.</I> <DD><B> 2a. </B>the sand in an hourglass. <DD><B> b. </B>a grain of this. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) The sands of time are running out for all of us.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(U.S. Slang.) courage; pluck; grit. <BR> <I>Ex. She had more sand in her than any girl I ever see (Mark Twain).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>a yellowish red. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to sprinkle with or as if with sand. People used to sand the kitchen floor; they also sanded letters to dry the ink. <DD><B> 2. </B>to spread sand over. <BR> <I>Ex. The highway department sanded the icy road.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to scrape, smooth, polish, or clean with sand or sandpaper. <BR> <I>Ex. to sand the edges of a piece of wood.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to fill up (a harbor) with sand. <DD><B> 5. </B>to add sand to. <BR> <I>Ex. to sand sugar.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>to cover with sand; bury under sand. <DD><I>adj. </I> yellowish-red. <BR><I>expr. <B>build on sand,</B> </I>to have a weak foundation or basis; have little support. <BR> <I>Ex. Their ... material wellbeing is built on sand (Manchester Guardian Weekly).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>run into the sands,</B> </I>to become bogged down or reach a dead end. <BR> <I>Ex. The short novels of this middle period are much better than most of his longer ones, which are likely to start off invitingly but in the second volume to run into the sands (New Yorker).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>sands,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>a tract or region composed mainly of sand. </I> <I>Ex. the sands of the desert; ... the principal sands in the estuary of the Thames (Thomas H. Huxley).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>moments, minutes, or small portions of time (in allusion to the sand in the hourglass for measuring time); lifetime. <BR> <I>Ex. Now there were voices in France, too, which called for compromise and reform before the sands ran out (Newsweek).</I> adj. <B>sandlike.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sandal">
<B>sandal</B> (1), noun, verb, <B>-daled,</B> <B>-daling</B> or (especially British) <B>-dalled,</B> <B>-dalling.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a kind of shoe made of a sole fastened to the foot by straps. <BR> <I>Ex. Our hero proudly strutting along the promenade, shod in sandals, wearing a short sleeved multicoloured shirt ... (London Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of various kinds of low-cut shoes or slippers. <DD><B> 3. </B>a light, low, rubber overshoe that has no heel. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to furnish with sandals. </DL>
<B>sandal tree,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=white sandalwood.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>an East Indian evergreen tree of the mahogany family, having edible fruit and a red, close-grained heartwood that takes a fine polish. </DL>
<A NAME="sandalwood">
<B>sandalwood, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the fragrant heartwood of certain trees of Asia, especially the white sandalwood. It is a hard, close-grained yellowish wood used for carving, making ornamental boxes and fans, and is also burned as incense. <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of the trees that it comes from. <DD><B> 3. </B>any one of several other trees or their similar wood, especially the red sandalwood, an East Indian tree of the pea family. </DL>
<A NAME="sandalwoodoil">
<B>sandalwood oil,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a fragrant oil extracted from the heartwood and roots of the sandalwood tree, used in incense and perfumes. </DL>
<A NAME="sandarac">
<B>sandarac, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a brittle, pale-yellow, translucent, slightly aromatic resin yielded by the bark of the sandarac tree, used as incense and in making varnish. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=sandarac tree.</B> <DD><B> 3. </B>red arsenic sulfide; realgar. </DL>
<A NAME="sandaractree">
<B>sandarac tree,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a tree of northwest Africa of the cypress family, whose fragrant, hard wood is much used in building. It is the source of the resin sandarac. </DL>
<A NAME="sandbag">
<B>sandbag, </B>noun, verb, <B>-bagged,</B> <B>-bagging.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a bag filled with sand. Sandbags are used to protect trenches, as ballast on a balloon, and to reinforce a levee or dike. <DD><B> 2. </B>a small bag of sand used as a club. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to furnish with sandbags. <BR> <I>Ex. There was no flood here; nothing had been damaged; no one was sandbagging streets or houses (Harper's).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to hit or stun with a sandbag. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) to be sandbagged by creditors, (Figurative.) sandbagging tactics.</I> noun <B>sandbagger.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sandbank">
<B>sandbank, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a ridge of sand forming a shoal or hillside. <BR> <I>Ex. But many ships have foundered and lives have been lost on what must be one of the best known sandbanks in the world (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sandbar">
<B>sand bar,</B> or <B>sandbar, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a ridge of sand formed in a river or along a shore by the action of tides or currents. <BR> <I>Ex. Many heavily-laden streams deposit sand bars in their channels thus making their courses shallower and rendering them more likely to flood their valleys (White and Renner).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sandbath">
<B>sand bath,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a receptacle containing hot sand, in which a chemical retort or the like is heated. <DD><B> 2. </B>a therapeutic treatment in which the body is covered with warm sand. <DD><B> 3. </B>the shaking of the body and feathers in sand or dry dirt, a method by which birds clean and rid themselves of lice. </DL>
<A NAME="sandbelt">
<B>sand belt,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a belt coated with sand or other abrasives, used in wood-polishing, surfacing, and finishing machines. <DD><B> 2. </B>an arid ridge of sand, often extending many miles. </DL>
<A NAME="sandbinder">
<B>sand binder,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any plant which serves to bind or fix shifting sands. </DL>
<A NAME="sandblast">
<B>sandblast, </B>noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a blast of air or steam containing sand, used to clean, grind, cut, or decorate hard surfaces, such as glass, stone, or metal. <DD><B> 2. </B>the apparatus used to apply such a blast. A sandblast is often used in cleaning the outside of buildings faced with stone. <DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> to use a sandblast on; clean, grind, cut, or decorate by a sandblast. <BR> <I>Ex. The accumulated grime was removed by sandblasting (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sandblaster">
<B>sandblaster, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who sandblasts. <DD><B> 2. </B>an apparatus that sandblasts. </DL>
<B>sandbox, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a box for holding sand, especially for children to play in. <DD><B> 2. </B>a place in a locomotive to hold sand for use when the wheels slip. <DD><B> 3. </B><B>=sandbox tree.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sandboxtree">
<B>sandbox tree,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a tropical American tree of the spurge family, whose fruit (a woody capsule) bursts with a sharp report when ripe and dry, scattering the seeds. </DL>
<A NAME="sandboy">
<B>sandboy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British Informal.) <B>as happy</B> (<B>jolly,</B> <B>merry,</B> or the like) <B>as a sandboy,</B> completely happy; very glad or cheerful. <BR> <I>Ex. "Happy as a sandboy" about my deposit account (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sandbur">
<B>sandbur</B> or <B>sandburr, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>any one of various weeds growing in sandy or waste places and bearing a small, burlike fruit. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=bur grass.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sandcast">
<B>sand-cast, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb, <B>-cast,</B> <B>-casting.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to cast (metal) by pouring it in a sand mold. </DL>
<A NAME="sandcasting">
<B>sand-casting, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the process of making a casting by pouring metal in a sand mold. <DD><B> 2. </B>the casting so made. </DL>
<A NAME="sandcherry">
<B>sand cherry,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a shrub bearing small, bitter, black cherries, that grows on the sand dunes of the Great Lakes and in sandy areas elsewhere in the Middle West and Canada. </DL>
<A NAME="sandclock">
<B>sand clock,</B> <B>=sandglass.</B> <I>Ex. One child turned over the sand clock, another struck the ship's bell (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sandcone">
<B>sand cone,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a low, conical projection of glacial ice the rapid melting of which is prevented by a covering of sand. </DL>
