CLOISTER

Cloister

A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm southern flank, usually indicates that it is part of a monastic foundation, "forming a continuous and solid architectural barrier... that effectively separates the world of the monks from that of the serfs and workmen, whose lives and works went on outside and around the cloister."

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Cloister
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cloister

Noun

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

Verb

  1. To become a Roman Catholic religious.
  2. To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.
  3. To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.
  4. To provide with (a) cloister(s).
    ''The architect cloistered the college just like the monastery which founded it
  5. To protect or isolate.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: cloister
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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