Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small cave or cavern.
- noun An artificial structure or excavation made to resemble a cave or cavern.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A subterranean cavity; a natural cavern, or an ornamented excavation or construction more or less remotely resembling a natural cave, made for shade or recreation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A natural covered opening in the earth; a cave; also, an artificial recess, cave, or cavernlike apartment.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A small
cave . - noun An
artificial cavern-likeretreat . - noun A
Marian shrine , usually built in a cavern-like structure.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small cave (usually with attractive features)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In one marvellous passage he defines the word "grotesque" from the word grotto, a small cave and goes on to sing the praises of the "modern master printers who think like the scribes of our old Icelandic languages" and decorate their texts with impossible creatures –"a centaur here, an old woman with birds' feet there, a three-headed dog".
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They had what they called a grotto — a show you'd go to.
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In a little water in front of the grotto is the lotus-flower, a regular Indian plant; while in the shade of some of the petrified wood are several beautiful English ferns.
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A little past the grotto is another small piece of water, springing from the centre of which is a rockery tastefully covered with ferns, and forming the pedestal to two statues of children, a boy and girl, the boy holding an umbrella over the girl's head; the trees around cover them with a deep shadow, and the tout ensemble is very pretty and shows great taste.
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The child opened the heavy door for him, and he looked into a poor mountain grotto, with bare stone walls.
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The word grotto now wants exploring so, as your etymological spelunker I'll tell you that English got grotto from Italian.
podictionary - for word lovers - dictionary etymology, trivia & history 2009
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There was a kind of grotto in the church, under the high altar; and in the grotto was a full-sized figure of a dead man, carved and painted -- and covered with wounds; and round that figure half the women and girls of the town were collected, stroking, kissing ...
Bertram Cope's Year Henry Blake Fuller 1893
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The grotto is the essence of the resort, which emphasizes healing, relaxing and rejuvenation; "out of the silence emerges the sound of your life," is one of the resort taglines.
Andrea R. Vaucher: Along for the Ride: Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa 2010
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The grotto is the essence of the resort, which emphasizes healing, relaxing and rejuvenation; "out of the silence emerges the sound of your life," is one of the resort taglines.
Andrea R. Vaucher: Along for the Ride: Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa 2010
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Intended as a site for diversions, a refuge from the rigid protocols of the royal court, the grotto was also one of the stops on her way to the guillotine.
Prunings XL 2008
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