Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle.
  • noun A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.
  • noun Life in a monastery or convent.
  • noun A secluded, quiet place.
  • transitive verb To shut away from the world in or as if in a cloister; seclude.
  • transitive verb To furnish (a building) with a cloister.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An inclosure.
  • noun An arched way or a covered walk running round the walls of certain portions of monastic and collegiate buildings.
  • noun Hence A place of religious retirement; a monastery; a convent; a nunnery; a religious house.
  • noun Any arcade or colonnade round an open court.
  • To confine in a cloister or convent.
  • To shut up; confine closely within walls; immure; shut up in retirement from the world.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete An inclosed place.
  • noun A covered passage or ambulatory on one side of a court
  • noun A monastic establishment; a place for retirement from the world for religious duties.
  • noun (Arch.) the garden or open part of a court inclosed by the cloisters.
  • transitive verb To confine in, or as in, a cloister; to seclude from the world; to immure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle; especially:
  • noun A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.
  • noun figuratively The monastic life
  • verb intransitive To become a Roman Catholic religious.
  • verb transitive To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.
  • verb intransitive To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.
  • verb transitive To provide with (a) cloister(s).
  • verb transitive To protect or isolate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb surround with a cloister
  • noun residence that is a place of religious seclusion (such as a monastery)
  • verb seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister
  • noun a courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions)
  • verb surround with a cloister, as of a garden

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cloistre, from Old French, alteration (influenced by cloison, partition) of clostre, from Latin claustrum, enclosed place, from claudere, to close.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded since c.1300, directly 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 noun use of the past participle (neutral inflection) of claudere ‘to close’.

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Examples

Comments

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  • О, е�?ли б был �?

    тихий,

    как гром,-

    ныл бы,

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    Я е�?ли в�?ей его мощью

    выреву голо�? огромный,-

    кометы залом�?т гор�?щие руки,

    бро�?а�?�?ь вниз �? то�?ки.

    If only I were

    quiet

    as thunder-

    I would whimper

    and, trembling, embrace earth's decrepit cloister.

    If I outroar in an enormous voice

    with all the power of thunder-

    comets will wring their burning hands,

    and fling themselves down in despair.

    - V. Mayakovsky, 'Себе любимому по�?вещает �?ти �?троки автор

    To His Beloved Self, the Author Dedicates these Lines'.

    October 15, 2008