cloister
- 01 C2 Proficiency
n.a place where people live quietly for religious reasons, away from the rest of the world.
n.a place of religious seclusion, such as a monastery or convent; by extension, the monastic life itself.
Simple“After years of busy city life, he decided to seek peace in the cloister.”
In context“She felt a profound calling to the cloister, believing that only through total withdrawal from secular society could she achieve spiritual clarity.”
- 02 C1 Advanced
v.to keep someone or yourself in a quiet place away from other people.
v.to confine or seclude someone in a monastery or a private, isolated place.
Simple“The writer cloistered himself in a small cabin to finish his book.”
In context“During the final months of the negotiations, the diplomats were cloistered in a remote country estate to ensure total confidentiality.”
Usageoften used in the passive voice as 'to be cloistered'.
“Similarly, though we tend to assume that life in the medieval cloister was rather cushy, a surprising number of monks felt themselves to be under intolerable pressure.”
“The mapping in Roskilde revealed traces of the monastery buildings, including room divisions, cloisters and a church in the southern wing.”
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.