cloister

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A covered walkway around an open courtyard, usually in a monastery or cathedral

   The monks walked slowly through the quiet cloister.

2. 2
   noun

   A monastery or convent, or the secluded religious life lived there

   She left the noise of the city for the calm of the cloister.

3. 3
   verb

   To shut yourself or someone away from the outside world

   He cloistered himself in his study for weeks to finish the book.

Recorded since about 1300 as Middle English cloistre, borrowed from Old French cloistre, clostre, or via Old English clauster, both from Medieval Latin claustrum (“portion of monastery closed off to laity”), from Latin claustrum (“place shut in, bar, bolt, enclosure”), a derivation of the past participle of claudere (“to close”). Doublet of claustrum.

Topics