Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLOIS'TER, n. [Fr. cloître; Sax. claustr, or cluster; Arm. claustr, or cloestr; Sp. claustro; It. claustro, or chiostro; D. klooster; G. kloster; Dan. and Sw. kloster; W. claws, clwys; Ir. clabhstur; L. claustrum, from clausus, pp. of claudo. See Eng. Close.]

1. Literally, a close; a close, or inclosed place. A monastery or nunnery; a house inhabited by monks or nuns. In a more limited sense, the principal part of a regular monastery, consisting of a square, erected between the church, the chapter-house and the refectory, and over which is the dormitory. The proper use of the cloister is for the monks to meet in for conversation. The cloister is square, and has its name from being inclosed on its four sides with buildings. Hence in architecture, a building is said to be in the form of a cloister, when there are buildings on each of the four sides of the court. – Encyc.
2. A peristyle; a piazza. – Johnson.