safe harbor
2
3.9
- noun
- /seɪf ˈhɑːrbər/
- US
:
refugio seguro
- It's a safe harbor in a world that doesn't have many of them.
- find a safe harbor
- provide a safe harbor
We saw boats adrift in the Andaman Sea looking for safe harbor where people could could disembark.
- We saw boats adrift in the Andaman Sea looking for safe harbor where people could could disembark.
- However, in the inflationary time, rather than buying bonds and holding cash, you're going to want to hold a safe harbor assets which some people consider that to be gold.
Examples
-
What did he know—and did he plan to tell me about it—or was this all coincidence, and was he simply running to the nearest safe harbor he knew of?
Fiction book (1990) -
Here, the suggestion is to encourage people to form and opt into virtual communities that would be safe harbors where everyone could agree to certain standards of decency.
Academic text (2002) -
Find us a safe harbor.
Fiction book (1990) -
The first one is the safe harbor for small taxpayers.
-
I believe we are in safe harbor, and no one in the chain of command that assisted us with this process suggested otherwise.
Blog text (22) -
We saw boats adrift in the Andaman Sea looking for safe harbor where people could could disembark.
-
Yet, while reforms pursued outside Catholicism were doomed to flounder, they could find safe harbor within the Catholic Church.
Academic text (2018) -
And since recessions inspire prospective students to return to the safe harbor of school, M.B.A. applications have risen significantly this year.
Academic text (2002) -
She pictured them talking to each other, Firsters murmuring back and forth in their lilting accent, and then the decision to drop lower, perhaps swing off course toward one of the safe-harbor clearings every backcountry pilot knew about.
Fiction book (1990) -
After a long journey, they found a safe harbor in a small village where they could rest and recuperate.
Synonyms
253
1.0
A place that protects people from danger or bad weather
179
3.3
A safe place or person that protects you from harm
108
3.9
A safe place where people or animals are protected from danger
106
4.8
A house where people in danger hide to stay safe
70
4.1
A safe place where people go to escape danger
26
4.0
A safe place or situation where a person feels protected
1
9.5
A place where ships stay safely during bad weather
A place where people or ships find safety from danger
A protected place where people hide to be safe from attack
Antonyms
How Safe
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'safe' (protected) and 'harbor' (a refuge), so a B1 learner who knows both words will grasp a general sense of protection or refuge. However, its specific legal/regulatory sense (a provision that shields from liability when conditions are met) is a metaphorical, domain-specific extension that is not fully predictable without exposure, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
Safe harbor comes from the literal place where ships shelter in a harbor from storms and danger. So when people use it today, they mean 'a place or situation offering protection or refuge'.