Sa·cred a.
 1. Set apart by solemn religious ceremony; especially, in a good sense, made holy; set apart to religious use; consecrated; not profane or common; as, a sacred place; a sacred day; sacred service.
 2. Relating to religion, or to the services of religion; not secular; religious; as, sacred history.
    Smit with the love of sacred song.   --Milton.
 3. Designated or exalted by a divine sanction; possessing the highest title to obedience, honor, reverence, or veneration; entitled to extreme reverence; venerable.
 Such neighbor nearness to our sacred [royal] blood
 Should nothing privilege him.   --Shak.
 Poet and saint to thee alone were given,
 The two most sacred names of earth and heaven.   --Cowley.
 4. Hence, not to be profaned or violated; inviolable.
    Secrets of marriage still are sacred held.   --Dryden.
 5. Consecrated; dedicated; devoted; -- with to.
    A temple, sacred to the queen of love.   --Dryden.
 6. Solemnly devoted, in a bad sense, as to evil, vengeance, curse, or the like; accursed; baleful. [Archaic]
    But, to destruction sacred and devote.   --Milton.
 Society of the Sacred Heart R.C. Ch., a religious order of women, founded in France in 1800, and approved in 1826. It was introduced into America in 1817. The members of the order devote themselves to the higher branches of female education.
 Sacred baboon. Zool. See Hamadryas.
 Sacred bean Bot., a seed of the Oriental lotus (Nelumbo speciosa or Nelumbium speciosum), a plant resembling a water lily; also, the plant itself. See Lotus.
 Sacred beetle Zool. See Scarab.
 Sacred canon. See Canon, n., 3.
 Sacred fish Zool., any one of numerous species of fresh-water African fishes of the family Mormyridae. Several large species inhabit the Nile and were considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians; especially Mormyrus oxyrhynchus.
 Sacred ibis. See Ibis.
 Sacred monkey. Zool. (a) Any Asiatic monkey of the genus Semnopithecus, regarded as sacred by the Hindoos; especially, the entellus. See Entellus. (b) The sacred baboon. See Hamadryas. (c) The bhunder, or rhesus monkey.
 Sacred place Civil Law, the place where a deceased person is buried.
 Syn: -- Holy; divine; hallowed; consecrated; dedicated; devoted; religious; venerable; reverend.
  -- Sa*cred*ly adv. -- Sa*cred*ness, n.

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 can·on n.
 1. A law or rule.
 Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.   --Shak.
 2. Eccl. A law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted by a council and confirmed by the pope or the sovereign; a decision, regulation, code, or constitution made by ecclesiastical authority.
    Various canons which were made in councils held in the second centry.   --Hook.
 3. The collection of books received as genuine Holy Scriptures, called the sacred canon, or general rule of moral and religious duty, given by inspiration; the Bible; also, any one of the canonical Scriptures. See Canonical books, under Canonical, a.
 4. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious order.
 5. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.
 6. A member of a cathedral chapter; a person who possesses a prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church.
 7. Mus. A musical composition in which the voices begin one after another, at regular intervals, successively taking up the same subject.  It either winds up with a coda (tailpiece), or, as each voice finishes, commences anew, thus forming a perpetual fugue or round.  It is the strictest form of imitation. See Imitation.
 8. Print. The largest size of type having a specific name; -- so called from having been used for printing the canons of the church.
 9. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; -- called also ear and shank.
 Note: [See Illust. of Bell.]
 10. Billiards See Carom.
 Apostolical canons. See under Apostolical.
 Augustinian canons, Black canons. See under Augustinian.
 Canon capitular, Canon residentiary, a resident member of a cathedral chapter (during a part or the whole of the year).
 Canon law. See under Law.
 Canon of the Mass R. C. Ch., that part of the mass, following the Sanctus, which never changes.
 Honorary canon, a canon6 who neither lived in a monastery, nor kept the canonical hours.
 Minor canon Ch. of Eng., one who has been admitted to a chapter, but has not yet received a prebend.
 Regular canon R. C. Ch., one who lived in a conventual community and followed the rule of St. Austin; a Black canon.
 Secular canon R. C. Ch., one who did not live in a monastery, but kept the hours.

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