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A monastery or society of persons of either sex, secluded from the world and devoted to religion and celibacy; also, the monastic building or buildings.

Belonging to an abbey; as, abbatial rights.

The French word answering to the English abbot, the head of an abbey; but commonly a title of respect given in France to every one vested with the ecclesiastical habit or dress.

f nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the abbots have over the monks. See Abbey.

The superior or head of an abbey.

t erected in honor of a person who is buried elsewhere. Dryden. A cenotaph in Westminster Abbey. Macaulay.

e so called because printing was first carried on in England in a chapel near Westminster Abbey.

d by a wall, hedge, or fence of any kind; -- specifically, the precinct of a cathedral or abbey. Closes surrounded by the venerable abodes of deans and canons. Macaulay.

g a college, or chapter of canons (and, in the Church of England, a dean), as Westminster Abbey. (b) An association of churches, possessing common revenues and administered under the joint pastorate of several ministers; as, the Reformed (Dutch) Collegiate Church of New York.

An allowance of meat, drink, or clothing due from an abbey or other religious house for the sustenance of such of the king's servants as he may designate to receive it. [Written also corrody.]

he ribs diverge somewhat like the rays of a fan, as in Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey. It is peculiar to English Gothic. -- Fan wheel, the wheel of a fan blower. -- Fan window. Same as Fan light (above).

A porch or waiting room, usually at the west end of an abbey church, where the monks collected on returning from processions, where bodies were laid previous to interment, and where women were allowed to see the monks to whom they were related, or to hear divine service. Also, frequently applied to the porch of a churc…

A cell annexed to an abbey, for the use of a hermit. Howell.

An angle in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, London; -- so called because it contains the tombs of Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, Ben Jonson, Gray, Tennyson, Browning, and other English poets, and memorials to many buried elsewhere.

door or gate. He by a privy postern took his flight. Spenser. Out at the postern, by the abbey wall. Shak.

presided over by a prior or prioress; -- sometimes an offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and called also cell, and obedience. See Cell, 2.

In an abbey or monastery, the room set apart for writing or copying manuscripts; in general, a room devoted to writing. Writing rooms, or scriptoria, where the chief works of Latin literature . . . were copied and illuminated. J. R. Green.

ual or common use; as, to secularize a church, or church property. At the Reformation the abbey was secularized. W. Coxe.

h produces such a feeling; as, the solemnity of an audience; the solemnity of Westminster Abbey.

A district granted to an abbey. [Obs.] Camden.