privileged sanctuaries

Noun

privileged sanctuary (plural privileged sanctuaries)

1. An area that is granted special protection or immunity from military operations or attacks, such as a religious or cultural site or one belonging to another party than those involved in a conflict.
   • For example, Walter Lippman has written that "it is for all practical purposes impossible to win a guerrilla war if there is a privileged sanctuary behind the guerrilla fighters."1973 May-June, G.R. Christmas, “Guerrilla Sanctuaries”, in Infantry, volume 61, page 25
2. A refuge where certain species are granted a protected status and cannot be killed.
   • They have a privileged sanctuary. I can remember in the early days in western Nebraska we used to go out in roundups and round up jackrabbits and run them into a corral and kill them with clubs, hundreds and thousands of them, because there were so many of them. Then a bug came along and most of...1956, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Withdrawal and Utilization of the Public Lands of the United States, page 138
3. A category of a commercial transaction in which one business or organization holds exclusive rights to operate.
   • In its presentation, the Post Office has stated to this committee that the present restrictions on the size and weight of parcel post provide a privileged sanctuary for one company — REA Express.1966, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, Hearings, page 523
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see privileged, sanctuary.
   • But he has brought economic motivation into the privileged sanctuary of pastoral, courtly, and religious poetry.2000, Robert ter Horst, “Poetics and Economics in Luis de León”, in David Foster, Daniel Altamiranda, Carmen de Urioste, editor, Spanish Literature, page 245