Obs. [a. OF. entreclos, f. entre between + clos: see CLOSE sb.]
1. A partition, ‘septum.’
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. lxxxi. (1495), 653. In the fruyte of Mirtus ben thre celles and in euery celle thre greynes or foure joyned wythout interclose [sine pariete.] Ibid. Some greyne is dowble wythoute interclose [Lat. absque pariete] as in Celidoyne, and some is deuble wyth interclose as the greyne of Narstucium.
2. Arch. ? A screen, partition. Also attrib.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 590. Interclausum, an enterclos.
1479. Will Wulwurth (Somerset Ho.). Lego ad facturam le enterclose beate Marie ecclesie.
1485. in Finchale Priory Acc. (1837), 370. Lez enterclose walles tenementorum in Ballio.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 308. Ouer against which place, vpon the enterclose of the Quier I find written [etc.].
1851–3. Turner, Dom. Archit., II. v. 216. [trans. Liberate Roll of 1248] An interclose with door and locks at the entrance of the queen’s new chamber.
b. ? A space partitioned off.
The architectural dicts. give the definition ‘a passage between two rooms,’ referring to the following example:
1478. Wyrcestre, Itin. (1778), 288. Le enterclose per quam vadit a porta ad aulam [in Wookey cavern] est longitudinis dimidium furlong, et archuata [etc.].
