For forms see prec. [f. the sb., or a. F. cloistrer (16th c. in Littré).]
1. trans. To shut up, enclose, or place in a cloister or monastic house.
1591. Florio, 2nd Fruites, A iiij. This younger sister I thought to haue cloystred vp in some solitarynes.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., V. i. 23. High thee to France, And Cloyster thee in some Religious House.
1692. Sir T. Blount, Ess., 41. That little stock of Learning … was cloyster’d up in Monasteries and Abbeys.
a. 1714. Sharp, Serm., I. iii. 92 (R.). Those that Cloyster up themselves in a Monastery.
1751. Bp. Lavington, Enthus. Methodists (1754), II. 144. She … no sooner was cloistered, but [etc.].
2. To shut up in any seclusion or retirement.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xli. (1887), 238. Studentes cloystured them selues together.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, IV. xiii. (1715), 310. When at Home they were cloyster’d up.
a. 1851. D. Moir, Poems, Field Pinkie, ii. The blackbird, cloistered in the oak.
1854. J. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), I. i. 34. [He] cloistered himself in his study.
† b. To shut up, enclose (things). Obs. rare.
1723. J. Mackay, Journ. Scotl. In the Library [of the College, Edinburgh] the books are cloistered with doors of wire.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., IV. 98.
3. fig. To confine, restrain within narrow limits.
1627. E. F., Hist. Edw. II. (1680), 89. The Cage of his restraint was strong, and guarded; yet ’twas too weak to cloyster his Ambition.
1684. Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), I. 61. [The soul] … ashamed to be cloistered in it [the body].
1812. D’Israeli, Calam. Auth., I. 245 (L.). Anthony Wood cloystered an athletic mind.
4. To furnish or surround (a place) with a cloister; to convert into a cloister or convent.
1625. Bacon, Ess. Building (Arb.), 552. Cloistered on all Sides, vpon Decent and Beautifull Arches.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, II. vii. Where, cloister’d round, the garden lay.
1863. J. M. Ludlow, Sisterhoods, in Gd. Words, 498/2. By Hélyot’s time several houses had become cloistered, sometimes not without a struggle.
Hence Cloistering vbl. sb.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., V. xxv. (1592), 106 (R.). This cloystring and fat feeding of Religious is not old.
1706. trans. Dupin’s Eccl. Hist. 16th C., II. IV. vii. 423. The Cloistring of Nuns.
