(See second quotation.) Canting use of the word.
1851. What seemed to be their annual reappearance at the altar.—S. Judd, ‘Margaret,’ i. 151.
1874. Goodwin immediately invited the penitents into the enclosed pen-like place called the altar, and the whole space was filled with kneeling mourners, whose cries and groans made the woods resound.—E. Eggleston, ‘The Circuit Rider,’ p. 261.
