Definition of "cloister"

A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle; especially:

1. such an arcade in a monastery;  examples

2. such an arcade fitted with representations of the stages of Christ's Passion.  examples

A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.  examples

(figuratively) The monastic life.  examples

(intransitive) To become a Roman Catholic religious.  examples

(transitive) To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.  examples

(intransitive) To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.  examples

(transitive) To provide with a cloister or cloisters.  examples

(transitive) To protect or isolate.  quotations  examples