a large church together with a group of buildings in which monks or nuns live or lived in the past (大)隐修院;(曾为大隐修院的)大教堂 Westminster Abbey 威斯敏斯特教堂 a ruined abbey 破败不堪的教堂
Oxford Collocations DictionaryAbbey is used before these nouns:- precinct
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French abbeie, from medieval Latin abbatia ‘abbacy’, from abbas, abbat-, from Greek abbas ‘father’, from Aramaic 'abbā.