grotto

noun

Etymology: From Italian grotta, from Vulgar Latin grupta, from Classical Latin crypta. Doublet of crypt. The Philippine sense is from the holy cave in Lourdes, France.

1. A small cave.
2. An artificial cavern-like retreat.

   “...But, while we are waiting for the temple, can you not show us the altar?—we want to see your grotto." Pope desired nothing better than to show his new toy, and led the way to the pretty and fanciful cave, which was but just finished.”

3. A Marian shrine, usually built in a cavern-like structure.
4. A local organization of cavers that typically organizes trips to caves and provides information and training for caving; a caving club.

   “An earlier attempt to organize a grotto in the Indiana, PA, area in the mid-1970s failed to succeed, but from it developed the informal Chestnut Ridge Explorers Association.”

   “By the mid-1940s members of local grottos (regional clubs of cavers within the National Speleological Society) were exploring Porcupine Cave (Bloch, 1946).”

5. A secretive name for a local group of underground Satanists.
6. A garden or roadside shrine with a small cave containing a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary (usually Our Lady of Lourdes and sometimes paired with a water feature)