What's an "anchoress"?

Anchoress is a title given to special holy women who lived life away from the world, while still in the midst of it.  It's different than a hermit because the "away" is really not in a remote place.
In times of old some holy people retreated from the outside world.  Since -ess indicates a female, we'll talk about how a woman did this:  In a ceremony, she was ushered into life as a nun, received the last rites, had ashes sprinkled over her, and then recited some special prayers before stepping into a room in which she would live the rest of her life, forbidden to leave it except when she died.  The room was called a cell, the same as what they call the rooms of many of the nuns and monks. It was not a prison, so to speak, it was a self-imposed life of prayer chosen be the extremely devout. 
The inside of the anchorhold had three small windows to the outside world:  one to look upon the Mass and so be able to see the Eucharist, one opening to the servants' quarters so as to receive food and speak with the person assigned to take dare of the daily needs, and a third window to offer spiritual counsel to those who came seeking for that person's counsel.  ... The three small openings off the side of the cell somewhat resembled an anchor - hence the name anchorhold, and anchoress etc. ...
Julian of Norwich was such an anchoress.  She lived during the Crusades of the 14th century and during the bubonic plague.  She had 16 visions of the suffering Christ and shared them in her writings.  Her story is one definitely worth visiting!