Definition of "holy of holies" []

• Judaism The sanctuary inside the tabernacle in the Temple of Jerusalem, in which the Ark of the Covenant was kept. (noun)
• Eastern Orthodox Church The bema or sanctuary in a church. (noun)
• A place of awe. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Campion was himself in the hall when he saw Patricia slip into the anteroom which led to Philip's private study, that holy of holies which even Florence treated with wholesome awe."
• "The purification of the holy of holies and of the holy place being thus completed, the high priest laid his hands upon the head of the goat on which the lot "For Azazel" had fallen and confessed over it all the sins of the people."
• "And the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is nothing but recesses, one chapel after another, galleries up the walls, every square inch of floor space in this holy of holies heavily used and bitterly contested (hence the Moslem guards, who can be depended upon to treat each division of Christianity with equal scorn)."