cloister
(noun) a courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions)
cloister
(verb) seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister; “She cloistered herself in the office”
cloister
(verb) surround with a cloister; “cloister the garden”
cloister
(verb) surround with a cloister, as of a garden
Source: WordNet® 3.1
cloister (plural cloisters)
A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle; especially
such an arcade in a monastery;
such an arcade fitted with representations of the stages of Christ's Passion.
A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.
(figuratively) The monastic life.
cloister (third-person singular simple present cloisters, present participle cloistering, simple past and past participle cloistered)
(intransitive) To become a Roman Catholic religious.
(transitive) To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.
(intransitive) To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.
(transitive) To provide with a cloister or cloisters.
(transitive) To protect or isolate.
• (become a Catholic religious) enter religion
• cloistre, coistrel, cortiles, costlier, creolist, sterolic
Source: Wiktionary
Clois"ter, n. Etym: [OF. cloistre, F. cloître, L. claustrum, pl. claustra, bar, bolt, bounds, fr. claudere, clausum, to close. See Close, v. t., and cf. Claustral.]
1. An inclosed place. [Obs.] Chaucer.
2. A covered passage or ambulatory on one side of a court; (pl.) the series of such passages on the different sides of any court, esp. that of a monastery or a college. But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale. Milton.
3. A monastic establishment; a place for retirement from the world for religious duties. Fitter for a cloister than a crown. Daniel. Cloister garth (Arch.), the garden or open part of a court inclosed by the cloisters.
Syn.
– Cloister, Monastery, Nunnery, Convent, Abbey, Priory. Cloister and convent are generic terms, and denote a place of seclusion from the world for persons who devote their lives to religious purposes. They differ is that the distinctive idea of cloister is that of seclusion from the world, that of convent, community of living. Both terms denote houses for recluses of either sex. A cloister or convent for monks is called a monastery; for nuns, a nunnery. An abbey is a convent or monastic institution governed by an abbot or an abbess; a priory is one governed by a prior or a prioress, and is usually affiliated to an abbey.
Clois"ter, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cloistered; p. pr. & vb. n. Cloistering.]
Definition: To confine in, or as in, a cloister; to seclude from the world; to immure. None among them are throught worthy to be styled religious persons but those that cloister themselves up in a monastery. Sharp.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
28 May 2025
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