cloister
clois·ter (klo̵is′tər)
noun
- a place of religious seclusion: monastery or convent
- monastic life
- any place where one may lead a secluded life
- an arched way or covered walk along the inside wall or walls of a monastery, convent, church, or college building, with a columned opening along one side leading to a courtyard or garden
Etymology: ME < OFr cloistre & OE clauster, both < ML(Ec) claustrum, portion of monastery closed off to the laity < L, a bolt, place shut in < pp. of claudere, to close
transitive verb
- to seclude or confine in or as in a cloister
- to furnish or surround with a cloister
cloister
n.
A place of religious seclusion
monastery, convent, abbey, priory, nunnery, friary, Charterhouse, hermitage, chapter house, house, order, retreat, cell(s), cenoby, retreat from the world, cloistered walls, religious community, lamasery, ashram; see also sanctuary 2.A covered walk
ambulatory, arcade, gallery; see colonnade, court 1.
cloister, in this comparison, is the general term for a place of religious seclusion, for either men or women, and emphasizes in connotation retirement from the world; convent, once a general term synonymous with cloister, is now usually restricted to such a place for women (nuns), formerly called a nunnery; monastery usually refers to a cloister for men (monks); an abbey is a cloister ruled by an abbot or abbess; a priory is a cloister ruled by a prior or prioress and is sometimes a subordinate branch of an abbey
Preposition: of
- monastery: My entire favorite bit of the entire opera is Act II Scene 1, in the cloisters of the monastery of San Giusto.
- cathedral: These pictures show the three sundials in the cloister of the cathedral, which is accessible through the museum.
- church: Was a restored copy of a cloister of the church of Santa Maria at Cologne.
Converse of object
- leave: They leave the cloister and wander off in search of an abundance of food.
- have: Melrose Abbey is unusual tho not unique in having the cloister to the north of the church.
- surround: To its south was the usual cloister surrounded by ranges of domestic buildings.
Adjective modifier
- Moorish: In Andalucia, Moorish cloisters and monastic calm, a house with its own farm, out-of this-world views.
- monastic: Early in 2001 a northern cloister was opened where once the monastic cloister stood.
- medieval: There is also a museum housed in the medieval cloisters, which is worth a look around.
- original: Running along the north side of the abbey church, where the original cloister would have been, a garden has been laid out.
- old: Breakfast is in the cool colonnades of the old cloister; the restaurant is in the dimly lit wine cellars.
- great: John Paslew, last abbot of Whalley, was also responsible for the commissioning of a separate mansion, east of the great cloister.
Modifies a noun
- garth: All were linked by a continuous alley around a cloister garth.
- alley: Books might also have been kept in the Sacristy or in the adjacent cloister alley.
- arcade: A reconstructed section of the Romanesque cloister arcade now stands beside the lavabo.
- walk: The walls of the cloister walks are all covered with blank arcading, echoing the openings with their bar tracery.
- garden: See magnificent award winning gardens, 19th century buildings with nuns chapel and cloister garden.
- wall: Just names on the cloister wall, Young men from long ago.
Noun used with modifier
Claustrum sine armario quasi castrum sine armamentario. Ipsum armarium nostrum est armamenturium. A cloister without a library is like a castle without an armoury. For the library is our armoury.
Inveni fateor in rege monachum, claustrum in curia, in palatio monasterii disciplinam. I confess that I found in the king a monk, in the court a cloister, and in the palace the discipline of a monastery.
But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale, And love the high embowe' d roof, With antic pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight Casting a dim religious light.
Browse dictionary entries near cloister
- cloisonné
- clog dance
- clog
- clofibrate
- clodpoll
- clodhoppers
- clodhopper
- clod
- clockwork
- clockwise
- cloistered
- clomb
- clomp
- clone
- Clonebot, Clonies, or Bot
- Cloned Cellular Phones
- clonic
- clonidine
- cloning
- clonk
