tabernacle

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tab·er·na·cle

(tăb′ər-năk′əl)

1. often Tabernacle Bible The portable sanctuary in which the Jews housed the Ark of the Covenant during their years in the desert.

2. often Tabernacle A case or box on a church altar containing the consecrated host and wine of the Eucharist.

3. A place of worship.

4. A niche for a statue or relic.

5. Nautical A boxlike support in which the heel of a mast is stepped.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin tabernāculum, from Latin, tent, diminutive of taberna, hut; see tavern.]

tab′er·nac′u·lar (-năk′yə-lər) adj.

tabernacle

(ˈtæbəˌnækəl)

1. (Bible) (often capital) Old Testament

a. the portable sanctuary in the form of a tent in which the ancient Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25–27)

b. the Jewish Temple regarded as the shrine of the divine presence

2. (Judaism) Judaism an English word for sukkah

3. (Christian Churches, other) a meeting place for worship used by Mormons or Nonconformists

4. (Ecclesiastical Terms) a small ornamented cupboard or box used for the reserved sacrament of the Eucharist

5. (Ecclesiastical Terms) the human body regarded as the temporary dwelling of the soul

6. (Roman Catholic Church) chiefly RC Church a canopied niche or recess forming the shrine of a statue

7. (Nautical Terms) nautical a strong framework for holding the foot of a mast stepped on deck, allowing it to be swung down horizontally to pass under low bridges, etc

[C13: from Latin tabernāculum a tent, from taberna a hut; see tavern]

ˌtaberˈnacular adj

tab•er•nac•le

(ˈtæb ərˌnæk əl)

n., v. -led, -ling. n.

1. a place or house of worship, esp. one designed for a large congregation.

2. (often cap.) the portable tentlike structure used as a place of worship by the Israelites during their wandering in the wilderness. Ex. 25–27.

3. an ornamental receptacle for the reserved Eucharist.

4. a canopied niche or recess, as for an image or icon.

v.t., v.i.

5. to place or dwell in or as if in a tabernacle.

[1200–50; < Late Latin tabernāculum, Latin: tent <tabern(a) hut, stall, inn (compare tavern)]

tab`er•nac′u•lar (-yə lər) adj.

Tabernacle

of bakers: a company of bakers—Bk. of St. Albans, 1486.

tabernacle

1. The portable sanctuary in which the ancient Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant.

2. The dwelling place of the tent of the Lord was the portable sanctuary made by the Children of Israel during years of wandering in the wilderness.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	Tabernacle - the Mormon temple Mormon Tabernacle Beehive State, Mormon State, Utah, UT - a state in the western United States; settled in 1847 by Mormons led by Brigham Young
	2.	Tabernacle - (Judaism) a portable sanctuary in which the Jews carried the Ark of the Covenant on their exodus holy of holies, sanctum sanctorum - (Judaism) sanctuary comprised of the innermost chamber of the Tabernacle in the temple of Solomon where the Ark of the Covenant was kept sanctuary - a consecrated place where sacred objects are kept Judaism - the monotheistic religion of the Jews having its spiritual and ethical principles embodied chiefly in the Torah and in the Talmud
	3.	tabernacle - (Judaism) the place of worship for a Jewish congregation synagogue, temple house of God, house of prayer, house of worship, place of worship - any building where congregations gather for prayer Judaism - the monotheistic religion of the Jews having its spiritual and ethical principles embodied chiefly in the Torah and in the Talmud

Translations

mastonkaatolaitesaarnatelttatabernaakkeli

tabernacolo

仮庵幕屋

tabernáculo

скиния

tabernacle

[ˈtæbənækl] N (in Judaism) → tabernáculo m; (= church) → templo m, santuario m; (in church) → sagrario m

tabernacle

n (= church) → Gotteshaus nt; (= receptacle) → Tabernakel m or nt; the Tabernacle (Bibl) → die Stiftshütte

tabernacle

[ˈtæbəˌnækl] n → tabernacolo

References in classic literature ?

To be sure, in cold weather you may carry your house aloft with you, in the shape of a watch-coat; but properly speaking the thickest watch-coat is no more of a house than the unclad body; for as the soul is glued inside of its fleshly tabernacle, and cannot freely move about in it, nor even move out of it, without running great risk of perishing (like an ignorant pilgrim crossing the snowy Alps in winter); so a watch-coat is not so much of a house as it is a mere envelope, or additional skin encasing you.

View in context

"If this king and this arch-prelate have their will, we shall briefly behold a cross on the spire of this tabernacle which we have builded, and a high altar within its walls, with wax tapers burning round it at noonday.

View in context

I wandered in it, pitching the tabernacle of my thoughts on the lining of the square family-pew, the fidgets of my small brothers, and the horror of knowing that, on the Monday, I should have to write out, from memory, jottings of the rambling disconnected extempore sermon, which might have had any text but its own, and to stand or fall by the result.

View in context

It was his grimmest deed since the days when he had brought Barbecue to heel; and knowing as we do how vain a tabernacle is man, could we be surprised had he now paced the deck unsteadily, bellied out by the winds of his success?

View in context

A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre; the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-table, the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany.

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Why, it says as God put his sperrit into the workman as built the tabernacle, to make him do all the carved work and things as wanted a nice hand.

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Hollister, who strongly contended that the Methodist (her own) church was the best entitled to and most deserving of, the possession of the new tabernacle. Richard now perceived that he had been too sanguine, and had fallen into the error of all those who ignorantly deal with that wary and sagacious people.

View in context

Tess, who had been quite unconscious of her action and mien, instantly withdrew the large dark gaze of her eyes, stammering with a flush, "I beg your pardon!" And there was revived in her the wretched sentiment which had often come to her before, that in inhabiting the fleshly tabernacle with which Nature had endowed her she was somehow doing wrong.

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Cornelius replied that undoubtedly his godfather could not have thought that there was any risk for the safety of his deposit, hidden as it was in a press which was looked upon as sacred as the tabernacle by the whole household of Van Baerle; and that consequently he had considered the certificate as useless.

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(they were constructed of a cool fabric like a meat-safe), or of ambling to unknown places of destination with her foot in her cotton stirrup, was so perfectly serene, that most observers would have been constrained to suppose her a dove, embodied by some freak of nature, in the earthly tabernacle of a bird of the hook-beaked order.

View in context

On each one of its concentric walls, the priests could read the word translated and manifested to the eye, and thus they followed its transformations from sanctuary to sanctuary, until they seized it in its last tabernacle, under its most concrete form, which still belonged to architecture: the arch.

View in context

He loved to kneel down on the cold marble pavement and watch the priest, in his stiff flowered dalmatic, slowly and with white hands moving aside the veil of the tabernacle, or raising aloft the jewelled, lantern-shaped monstrance with that pallid wafer that at times, one would fain think, is indeed the "panis caelestis," the bread of angels, or, robed in the garments of the Passion of Christ, breaking the Host into the chalice and smiting his breast for his sins.