Cloister
Cloister , noun
[Old French cloistre, French cloître, Latin claustrum, pl. claustra, bar, bolt, bounds, from claudere, clausum, to close. See Close, transitive verb, and compare Claustral.]
1.
An inclosed place. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
2.
A covered passage or ambulatory on one side of a court;
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.
3.
A monastic establishment; a place for retirement from the world for religious duties.
Fitter for a cloister than a crown.
Collocations (1)
Cloister garth (Architecture) , the garden or open part of a court inclosed by the cloisters.
Cloister , transitive verb
To confine in, or as in, a cloister; to seclude from the world; to immure.
None among them are thought worthy to be styled religious persons but those that cloister themselves up in a monastery.