altar
/ˈɔl.tɚ/ noun B2- A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites.
- A raised area around an altar in a church; the sanctuary.
- Any (real or notional) place where something is worshipped or sacrificed to.
Plural altars
From the library
Supposing that the Swan’s splendid white color arose from his washing in the water in which he swam, the Raven left the altars in the neighborhood where he picked up his living, and took up residence in the lakes and pools.
The man he sacrificed to his ambition, that innocent victim immolated on the altar of his father’s faults, appeared to him pale and threatening, leading his affianced bride by the hand, and bringing with him remorse, not such as the ancients figured, furious and terrible, but that slow and consuming agony whose pangs are intensified from hour to hour up to the very moment of death.
Martyrs on the altar of our country.
I am, therefore, by no means discouraged by what you have just said, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long.”
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