Forms: 4 cloystor, cloistre, 4–5 cloystre, 4–8 -ter, 5 -tere, 5–6 -ture, 6–7 cloisture, 4– cloister. [ME. cloistre, a. OF. cloistre, earlier clostre:—L. claustr-um, clōstr-um, ‘a bar, bolt, lock,’ later ‘a shut up place, a cloister,’ f. claud-, claus- to shut + -trum instrumental suffix. Before the adoption of the French form, OE. had already CLAUSTER and clústor from Latin, and ME. had also CLOSTER, and clowster.]
1. An enclosed place or space, enclosure; close; compass. Also fig. Obs. or arch. (In later use app. taken as fig. from sense 2 or 3.)
c. 1300. Beket, 2089. Into the cloistre of Canterbure with grete noyse hi gonne weve.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 968. Vt-wyth to se þat clene cloystor, Þou may, bot in-wyth not a fote.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), I. xlvi. 79 b/2. He … edefyed a lytyll cloysture of stones.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXVI. ix. 924. One part … was strongly fortified with a mure of less circuite and cloisture [circulo] than the other.
1646. J. Hall, Poems, I. 13. Within the Cloyster of a nut.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. i. § 39. ’Tis now time for the Plume to rouze out of its Cloysters, and germinate.
1831. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 190. Immured … in cloisters of the mind.
† b. Applied to the womb. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Second Nun’s T., 43. With-Inne the Cloistre blisful of thy sydis.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Ladye, 220. The cloyster of Mary beryth hym.
1539. Bk. Ceremonies, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. cix. 285. Christ … came from the … virginal cloister of his mother.
2. A place of religious seclusion; a monastery or nunnery; a convent.
1340. Ayenb., 242. Lottes wyf betokneþ ham … þet habbeþ hear body ine cloystre, an zetteþ hare herten ine þe wordle.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, xii. (Arb.), 28. A cloyster of b[l]ack nonnes.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. v. (1634), 536. Let a Monke be content with his cloister.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 71. For aye to be in shady Cloister mew’d.
1597. Daniel, Civ. Warres, v. 50. Fitter for a Cloyster than a Crowne.
1614. T. Adams, Devil’s Banquet, 122. The villanies of the Cloistures.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., I. iii. § 9. 51. Those things which the Ægyptian Priests had to that time kept secret in their Cloysters.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Germany, II. 98. There are several cloysters remaining in this city, which are now secularized.
b. fig.
1340. Ayenb., 151. Þes yefþe [of wytte] is priour ine þe cloystre of þe zaule.
1599. Davies, Immort. Soul, v. Nor in a secret cloister doth he keep These virgin spirits.
1857. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Poets, ii. 78. To withdraw … into the cloister of his ideal world.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 30. English prose is indebted to Dryden for having freed it from the cloister of pedantry.
c. The cloister: the seclusion of a cloister; monastic life.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xlvii. 775. The austerity of the cloyster.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1867), 91. In a manner which scents of the cloister.
1888. ‘Bernard,’ Fr. World to Cloister, ii. 14. Reflection and preparation before they enter the cloister.
3. A covered walk or arcade connected with a monastery, college, or large church, serving as a way of communication between different parts of the group of buildings, and sometimes as a place of exercise or study; often running round the open court of a quadrangle, with a plain wall on the one side, and a series of windows or an open colonnade on the other. (Often in pl.)
c. 1400. Maundev., vi. (1839), 70. Under the cloystre of the Chirche.
1579. Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 615. The cloyster or walking place of Alsoule Colledge in Oxenford.
1632. Milton, Perseroso, 156. To walk the studious cloister’s pale.
a. 1672. Wood, Life (1848), 8. New Coll. schoole, situated between the west part of the chappell, and E. part of the cloyster.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 167, ¶ 1. To be interred … in the Cloysters near Westminster Abbey.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 292. The court-yard is surrounded with a cloister as it is in monasteries.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 261. I was loitering about the old gray cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 299. Granta’s quiet solitudes, her cloisters and her halls.
b. A similar walk or arcade in connection with other buildings.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 684. Till he come thurghe a cloyster to a clene halle.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 15. The pillars and arched Cloysters of that princely pallace.
1680. Morden, Geog. Rect. (1685), 197. One long Street, with narrow Porticoes, or Cloysters on both sides.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Stonehenge, Wks. (Bohn), II. 127. [Wilton Hall] A quadrangle cloister full of antique and modern statuary.
4. attrib. and Comb., as cloister-bower, † -brood, -chapel, -court, † -creeper, -life, -man, -monk, -quadrangle, -room; cloister-garth, the open court enclosed by a cloister; cloister-wise adv.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (1857), 117. Friers and nunnes … the hypocrisie and uncleannesse of that *cloyster-broode.
1798. Sotheby, trans. Wieland’s Oberon (1826), I. 56. To the *cloister-court in crowds tumultuous came.
1563. Man, Musculus’ Commonpl., 41 a. Monkes, Friers, and other *Cloyster-crepers.
1850. Parker, Gloss. Archit., I. 135. The cloisters … are arranged round three or four sides of a quadrangular area, termed the *cloister garth.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., 537–8. Manye monkis han be take out of *cloister lyf to be bischopis.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 1169. False prechers and *Cloister men.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 30. An *cloyster monk.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 71. ’Twas *Cloister-wise contriv’d with Arches strong.
