A cloister is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth.

What is cloister?

A cloister is an enclosed garden, usually surrounded by covered walkways. ... When used as a verb, cloister generally loses its religious connotation and means "to seclude" or "isolate." Don't get a lunch detention or you'll be cloistered in the classroom while all the other kids are running around outside.

What is the purpose of cloisters?

A cloister is usually the area in a monastery around which the principal buildings are ranged, affording a means of communication between the buildings. In developed medieval practice, cloisters usually followed either a Benedictine or a Cistercian arrangement.