cloister

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cloister /ˈklɔɪstə/

▶noun

• 1 a covered, and typically colonnaded, passage round an open court in a convent, monastery, college, or cathedral.

• 2 a convent or monastery.

  ■ (the cloister) monastic life.

▶verb seclude or shut up in a convent or monastery.

– derivatives
cloistral adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr. cloistre, from L. claustrum, clostrum ‘lock, enclosed place’, from claudere, ‘to close’.