Noun

(sanctuaries)

A place of safety, refuge or protection.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary ,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. […]’}}

My car is a sanctuary , where none can disturb me except for people who cut me off.

An area set aside for protection.

The bird sanctuary has strict restrictions on visitors so the birds aren't disturbed.

A state of being protected, asylum.

The government granted sanctuary to the defector, protecting him from his former government.

The consecrated (or sacred) area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.

Noun

(en noun)

A dense collection of trees covering a relatively large area. Larger than woods.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.}}

Any dense collection or amount.

forest of criticism.

(historical) A defined area of land set aside in England as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use; all such areas.

* {{quote-book, year=2006, author=

, title=Internal Combustion , chapter=2 citation , passage=Throughout the 1500s, the populace roiled over a constellation of grievances of which the forest' emerged as a key focal point. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the ' forest , dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.}}

(graph theory) A disjoint union of trees.