Cloistral
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Of, pertaining to, resembling or living in a cloister.
"1606, Samuel Daniel, The Queen’s Arcadia, in The Poetical Works of Mr. Samuel Daniel, London: R. Gosling, 1717, The Epistle, pp. 151-152, … it is in that Kind [of Words], as best accords With rural Passions, which use not to reach Beyond the Groves, and Woods, where they were bred And best become a Cloistral Exercise, Where Men shut out retir’d, and sequestred From publick Fashion, seem to sympathize With innocent and plain Simplicity:"
- 2 Sheltered from the world; monastic.
"Speak not! he is consecrated— / Breathe no breath across his eyes: / Lifted up and separated / On the hand of God he lies, / In a sweetness beyond touching,—held in cloistral sanctities."
- 3 Secluded.
"[C]loistral avenues, / Where silence dwells if music be not there: […]"
- 1 of communal life sequestered from the world under religious vows wordnet
Example
More examples"1606, Samuel Daniel, The Queen’s Arcadia, in The Poetical Works of Mr. Samuel Daniel, London: R. Gosling, 1717, The Epistle, pp. 151-152, … it is in that Kind [of Words], as best accords With rural Passions, which use not to reach Beyond the Groves, and Woods, where they were bred And best become a Cloistral Exercise, Where Men shut out retir’d, and sequestred From publick Fashion, seem to sympathize With innocent and plain Simplicity:"
Etymology
Ultimately from Latin claustrālis (“of the cloister”), probably via Middle French cloistral. Doublet of claustral.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.