cŏn'clāve, n.

n. [Lat. conclave, a room that may be locked up, from con and clavis, key.]

1. A private apartment, particularly the room in which the cardinals of the Roman Catholic church meet in privacy, for the election of a pope.
2. The assembly of the cardinals, shut up for the election of a pope; hence, the body of cardinals.

It was said of a cardinal, by reason of his apparent likelihood to step into St. Peter's chair, that in two conclaves he went in pope and came out cardinal. South. 3. A private meeting; a close assembly. The verdicts pronounced by this conclave [Johnson's Club] on new books, was speedily known over all London. Macaulay.