cloister

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English

WOTD – 15 September 2007

Alternative forms

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.

Pronunciation

Noun

cloister (plural cloisters)

  1. A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle; especially:
    1. such an arcade in a monastery;
    2. such an arcade fitted with representations of the stages of Christ's Passion.
  2. A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.
  3. (figuratively) The monastic life.

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Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

cloister (third-person singular simple present cloisters, present participle cloistering, simple past and past participle cloistered)

  1. (intransitive) To become a Roman Catholic religious.
  2. (transitive) To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.
  3. (intransitive) To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.
  4. (transitive) To provide with a cloister or cloisters.
    The architect cloistered the college just like the monastery which founded it.
  5. (transitive) To protect or isolate.
    • 1983 April 9, “Beacon Hill: Mt Vernon St. (classified advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, page 14:
      Unique condo cloistered on top of hill.

Synonyms

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Translations

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Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

cloister

  1. Alternative form of cloistre
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