Definition

1. 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.

2. 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

1. a courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions)
2. residence that is a place of religious seclusion (such as a monastery)

Verb

1. seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister
   • She cloistered herself in the office
2. surround with a cloister
   • cloister the garden
3. surround with a cloister, as of a garden