cloîtrer

The traditional spelling for shutting someone away in a cloister or convent, or reflexively, for secluding oneself from the world — se cloîtrer chez soi. The unaccented cloitrer is an equally correct alternative spelling from the 1990 spelling reform.

• Les moniales se sont cloîtrées dans ce couvent au XVIIe siècle. — The nuns cloistered themselves in this convent in the 17th century.
• Depuis son divorce, il s'est cloîtré dans son appartement. — Since his divorce, he's shut himself away in his apartment.
• Le couvent cloîtrait ses religieuses loin du monde extérieur. — The convent kept its nuns cloistered away from the outside world.

Don't assume cloîtrer only applies to actual monks and nuns — its most common modern use is figurative, for someone isolating themselves at home out of grief, depression, or choice.

Often confused with cloitrer.