# harbor

Pronunciation: US say "HAR-bur" /ˈhɑɹbɚ/; UK say "HAR-buh" /ˈhɑːbə/

## Noun

1. A sheltered stretch of water beside land where ships can anchor or dock, especially to load and unload cargo.
   - Simple: A protected area of water near land where ships can stay safely and load or unload.
   - _The old harbor still shelters dozens of cargo ships each week._
   - _Tugboats guided the tanker safely into the harbor before unloading began._
4. Any place that gives shelter or protection from danger or the elements.
   - Simple: Any place where you can be safe and protected.
   - _To the runaways, the abandoned mill offered a harbor from the world outside._
   - _Her grandmother's home remained a harbor of calm amid the family's troubles._

## Verb

2. To hold or persistently keep a feeling, thought, or suspicion in one's mind.
   - Simple: To keep a feeling or thought in your mind for a long time.
   - _People who harbor suspicions rarely voice them openly._
   - _For years she harbored resentment toward those who doubted her._
3. To give shelter or a safe place to a person, animal, or thing.
   - Simple: To give someone or something a safe place to stay or hide.
   - _Local families harbored refugees during the long conflict._
   - _A captain who would harbor smugglers risked losing his ship._
5. Of a vessel, to take shelter or refuge in a protected stretch of water.
   - Simple: To go into calm, protected water to stay safe, as a ship does.
   - _The fleet harbored overnight behind the breakwater._
   - _Captains prefer to harbor in deep coves when gales threaten._

## Noun

6. Shelter or refuge; the condition of being protected from harm. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Safety or protection, especially a safe place away from danger.
   - _The pilgrims found harbor within the monastery walls that bitter night._
   - _He offered the fugitive harbor, asking nothing in return._
7. In astrology, a house of the zodiac, or the region of the sky occupied by a heavenly body. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: In old star-watching, a part of the sky where a planet or star was said to stay.
   - _The court astrologer charted which harbor the wandering planet then occupied._
   - _Mars, he warned, had passed into an unfavorable harbor._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A mixing box for materials.
- (verb) To drive (a hunted stag) to covert.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4, 6–7** — From Middle English herberwe, from Old English herebeorg ("shelter, lodgings, quarters"), which came from Proto-West Germanic roots meaning "army" plus "protection." It is a doublet of albergo and auberge.
**Meanings 2–3, 5** — From Middle English herberwen, from Old English herebeorgian ("to take up one's quarters, lodge"), formed from the related noun.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/harbor (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).