literally a place inclosed with walls; commonly applied to a monastery or nunnery. In a more limited sense, cloister denotes the principal part of a regular monastery, consisting of a square inclosing a court, which is ordinarily between the church, the chapter-house, and the refectory, and over which is the dormitory. The cloisters served for several purposes in the ancient monasteries. The proper use of the cloister is for the monks to meet in for conversation at certain hours of the day. The form of the cloister is square; and received its Latin name claustrum from clausus, the participle of claudo, to shut or close; as 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.