cloister

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   residence that is a place of religious seclusion, such as a monastery, featuring a courtyard with covered walks

   My grandparents like to visit European cloisters.

2. 2
   verb

   to seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister

   I cloistered myself in the office.

3. 3
   verb

   to surround with a building or protection, as of a garden in a cloister

   We cloistered the holy site.

4. 4
   verb

   To provide with a cloister or cloisters.

   The architect cloistered the college just like the monastery which founded it.

5. 5
   verb

   To protect or isolate.

   Unique condo cloistered on top of hill.

6. 6
   noun

   A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that surround a quadrangle; especially:

7. 7
   noun

   A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.

8. 8
   noun

   The monastic life.

Etymology

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.