Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See perclose.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Eccl. Arch.) A screen separating a chapel from the body of the church.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A partition that closes off part of a building; especially one that separates an altar or chapel from the rest of a church.
  • noun obsolete An enclosed area, especially one separated from the main body of a building by a screen or partition.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman parclos, perclose et al., Middle French parclose ("end, enclosure"), noun use of past participle of parclore ("to enclose").

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Examples

  • And in the north aisle, in front of the parclose screen, the empty wrought-iron flower stand.

    To Say Nothing of the Dog Willis, Connie 1997

  • The splendid church, the tombs, and even the very family of Scrope, have disappeared; but across the hills, in the valley of the Ure, their castle still stands, and in the little church of Wensley there can still be seen the parclose screen of Perpendicular date that one of the Scropes must have rescued when the monastery was being stripped and plundered.

    Yorkshire Gordon Home 1923

  • In the little church standing on the south side of the green there is so much to interest us that we are almost unable to decide what to examine first, until, realizing that we are brought face to face with a beautiful relic of Easby Abbey, we turn our attention to the parclose screen.

    Yorkshire Gordon Home 1923

  • Between the lozenge-shaped shafts of the choir arches, the worm-riddled parclose screens dripped sawdust in little heaps.

    The White Wolf and Other Fireside Tales Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

  • And the parclose screen in front of the Smiths’ Chapel.

    To Say Nothing of the Dog Willis, Connie 1997

  • I carried it across to the Smiths’ Chapel, thinking, now the wrought-iron stand will have disappeared, but it was there, right where it was supposed to be, in front of the parclose screen.

    To Say Nothing of the Dog Willis, Connie 1997

  • The bishop’s bird stump wasn’t under the stone, but the wrought-iron stand it had stood on was, and one of the crosspieces of the parclose screen, and, under a chunk of red sandstone, a half-charred stem of a flower.

    To Say Nothing of the Dog Willis, Connie 1997

  • So it had to be here somewhere, along with the rest of the parclose screen and the section of memorial tablet that read, “— ernal,” and I’d better get busy if I was going to find them before dark.

    To Say Nothing of the Dog Willis, Connie 1997

  • “In front of the parclose screen of the Smiths’ Chapel, between the third and fourth pillars.”

    To Say Nothing of the Dog Willis, Connie 1997

  • “It’s in front of the parclose screen of the Smiths’ Chapel where it’s supposed to be.”

    To Say Nothing of the Dog Willis, Connie 1997

Comments

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  • "The bishop's bird stump had stood on a wrought-iron stand in front of the parclose screen of the Smiths' Chapel."

    To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, p 2

    July 1, 2010