Definition of "palaistra"

In primitive times the palaistras had no architectural character; a meadow and a sandy reach, generally upon the bank of a brook and shaded by trees, sufficed as a training-ground.

1882, Franz von Reber, translated by Joseph Thacher Clarke, History of Ancient Art, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 255

Particular Sophists attached themselves to particular gymnasia and palaistrai which they came to regard as their schools.

1908, Kenneth J[ohn] Freeman, edited by M[ontague] J[ohn] Rendall, Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education from 600 to 300 B.C., London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, page 138

Where did he train the teams of his fellow-tribesmen? Probably he hired trainers in the private palaistrai.

1973, T[homas] B[ertram] L[onsdale] Webster, Athenian Culture and Society, London: Batsford, page 51

The Old Oligarch, contradicting his assertions about education above, later claims that although a few rich people have gymnasia and baths of their own, the people builds for its own use many palaistrai and baths (2, 10).

1979, L’Antiquité classique, volume 48, page 543

Whether or not Delorme's interpretation of Lykourgos’s activity is correct, it is certainly true that the earliest preserved examples of palaistrai with peristyle courts belong to the last third or so of the fourth century, for instance, the gymnasium at Delphi (figs. 276a–b) and the Timoleonteion at Syracuse in Sicily.

2006, Frederick E. Winter, Studies in Hellenistic Architecture, Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, page 118, column 2

Palaistras and gymnasia were an important aspect of city life, a popular place for men to gather and observe beautiful youths training their bodies and exercising their minds.

2011, Amalia Avramidou, The Codrus Painter: Iconography and Reception of Athenian Vases in the Age of Pericles, Madison, Wis.: The University of Wisconsin Press, page 61, column 1

Alterations to the palaistras in the later second and particularly in the third century made them more multifunctional, but also less suited for sports.

2015, Sofie Remijsen, The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity (Greek Culture in the Roman World), Cambridge, Cambs.: Cambridge University Press, page 75