purdah

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A curtain or screen, used mainly in India to keep women separate from men or strangers.
2. n. The Hindu or Muslim system of sex segregation, practiced especially by keeping women in seclusion.
3. n. Social seclusion: "Never have artists been more separate: their inordinate fame, wealth, drug use have driven them into luxurious purdah” ( D. Keith Mano).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In India, a curtain. A curtain serving as a screen in an audience-hall or room of state.
2. n. A curtain screening women of superior rank from the sight of men and from contact with strangers.
3. n. Hence — The kind of seclusion in which such women live, constituting a mark of rank.
4. n. The material of which the curtain is made; especially, a fine kind of matting, or a cotton cloth woven in white and blue stripes.
5. In India, to screen with a purdah.

Wiktionary

1. n. A curtain, especially as used to conceal and divide women from men and strangers in some Hindu or Muslim traditions.
2. n. rare A striped cotton cloth which is used to make curtains.
3. n. A long veil, or other all-enveloping clothing, worn by women in some Muslim societies.
4. n. The state or system of social gender seclusion in some Muslim or Hindu communities.
5. n. The time between the announcement and holding of an election, during which any governmental activities that may be construed as potentially benefiting or promoting a specific political party or prospective candidate are halted or suspended.
6. n. The period after plans have been prepared but before the Chancellor of the Exchequer's annual budget is announced, when he refrains from discussing any matters which have relevance to the forthcoming budget.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A curtain or screen; also, a cotton fabric in blue and white stripes, used for curtains.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a state of social isolation
2. n. a screen used in India to separate women from men or strangers
3. n. the traditional Hindu or Muslim system of keeping women secluded