ark

Etymology

From Old English ærc, from Latin arca (“chest, box, coffer”), from arceō (“I enclose”).

noun

1. A large box with a flat lid.
2. (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) Noah's ark: the ship built by Noah to save his family and a collection of animals from the deluge.
   In the midrash about Noah it says that Noah had a stone which, when held up in the darkness of the ark, would change color when the sun was shining outside. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 201
3. Something affording protection; safety, shelter, refuge
4. A spacious type of boat with a flat bottom.
   Some seventy or seventy-five arks were permanently located on McLeod's Lake and between 110 and 125 people lived in them. 1990, Lou Sullivan, chapter 7, in From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland, page 76
5. (Judaism) The Ark of the Covenant.
6. (Judaism) A decorated cabinet at the front of a synagogue, in which Torah scrolls are kept.