cloister
/'klɔistə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- A covered walkway surrounding a courtyard: A "cloister" is a covered passage, often with columns or arches on one side, that runs along the inside walls of a building, typically a monastery, convent, or college, and encloses a courtyard.
- A place of religious seclusion: A "cloister" can refer to the entire monastery or convent itself, representing a secluded life devoted to prayer and meditation.
- The secluded, contemplative life: "The cloister" can figuratively mean the state or condition of living a life shut away from the world.
Verb:
- To seclude or shut away: To "cloister" someone or oneself means to confine or seclude them, often in a quiet, sheltered place away from the outside world.
- To surround with a cloister: To "cloister" an area, like a garden, means to enclose it with covered walkways or walls.
Usage Examples
Noun:
- The monks walked silently in the stone cloister, contemplating their prayers.
- After a life in politics, she sought peace within the cloister of a remote convent.
- He left the noise of the city for the quiet of the cloister.
Verb:
- The writer cloistered herself in a cabin in the woods to finish her novel.
- The beautiful garden was cloistered by ancient, ivy-covered arcades.
Advanced Usage
"To live in cloister": To live a life of religious seclusion.
- The nuns have chosen to live in cloister, dedicating their lives to prayer.
"Cloistered away": Kept in isolation or seclusion.
- The rare manuscript was cloistered away in a climate-controlled vault.
Variants and Related Words
Cloistral (adj): Pertaining to or characteristic of a cloister; secluded.
- The library had a cloistral silence that was perfect for study.
Cloisterer (n): A person who lives in a cloister, such as a monk or nun.
Synonyms
- Noun (for walkway): Arcade, colonnade, gallery, ambulatory.
- Noun (for seclusion): Monastery, convent, abbey, retreat.
- Verb: Seclude, sequester, isolate, shut away, confine.
Related Phrases
- "The cloistered life": A life of seclusion from worldly affairs.
- He was unfamiliar with modern trends, having lived the cloistered life of a scholar.
Idioms
- "To be cloistered from reality": To be sheltered or isolated to the point of being unaware of real-world conditions.
- The executive's decisions were poor because he was completely cloistered from the reality of his employees' daily struggles.
Noun
- a courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions)
- residence that is a place of religious seclusion (such as a monastery)
Verb
- seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister
- She cloistered herself in the office
- surround with a cloister
- cloister the garden
- surround with a cloister, as of a garden