a term applied, in ecclesiastical language, to the garden of a convent; the name is also sometimes applied to an open court or area in front of a church, and occasionally to the cloisters, and even to the whole space included within the circuit of a convent, but usually to the burial-place. Probably the word is a. corruption of Parvise, which is still in use in France for the open space around cathedrals and churches.