cloister

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clois·ter / ˈkloistər/ • n. a covered walk in a convent, monastery, college, or cathedral, typically with a wall on one side and a colonnade open to a quadrangle on the other. ∎  (the cloister) monastic life. ∎  a convent or monastery. ∎  any place or position of seclusion: college is a cloister apart from the cares of the world.• v. [tr.] seclude or shut up in or as if in a convent or monastery.DERIVATIVES: clois·tral / ˈkloistrəl/ adj.ORIGIN: Middle English (in the sense ‘place of religious seclusion’): from Old French cloistre, from Latin claustrum, clostrum ‘lock, enclosed place,’ from claudere ‘to close.’

cloister

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