haven
/ˈheɪv(ə)n
/noun
1A place of safety or refuge: a haven for wildlife...
- About a third of these partnerships are registered in the Cayman Islands or other secrecy havens, which may make it impossible to unravel the worst corporate collapse in American history.
- The chatrooms were the havens of the anonymous.
- You have criticized the greedy capitalists for breaking unions, leveling entire industries, and throwing men out of work to shift jobs to cheap labor havens.
Synonyms
refuge, retreat, shelter, sanctuary, asylum, place of safety, place of security, port in a storm, harbour, oasis, sanctum
1.1An inlet providing shelter for ships or boats; a harbour or small port.This dominion not only extends over the open seas, but also over all creeks, arms of the sea, havens, ports, and tide-rivers, as far as the reach of the tide, around the coasts of the kingdom....
- I can see a lot more vessels taking advantage of this natural boat haven over the winter.
- The majority of vessels were sloops and schooners of 50-100 tons, ideal for working cargoes from the shallow and confined havens of north Northumberland.
Synonyms
anchorage, harbour, port, mooring, roads;
cove, inlet, bay, fjord
rare harbourage, moorage, roadstead, hithe
Origin
Late Old English hæfen, from Old Norse hǫfn; related to Dutch haven, German Hafen 'harbour'.
harbour from Old English:
Old English herebeorg was ‘a shelter, refuge’. It came to be used as a shelter for ships in late Middle English. In Old English haven was the word used for harbour. The sense ‘cherish privately’ arose early and was used of any feelings; it gradually became associated principally with grievance and resentment. A harbinger (Middle English) was originally someone who went ahead to find lodgings for an army.