mall

American  

[mawl, mal] / mɔl, mæl /

noun

1. Also called shopping mall.  a large retail complex containing a variety of stores and often restaurants and other business establishments housed in a series of connected or adjacent buildings or in a single large building.

2. a large area, usually lined with shade trees and shrubbery, used as a public walk or promenade.

3. Chiefly Upstate New York. a strip of land, usually planted or paved, separating lanes of opposite traffic on highways, boulevards, etc.

4. the game of pall-mall.

5. the mallet used in the game of pall-mall.

6. the place or alley where pall-mall was played.

---

mall British  

/ mɔːl, mæl /

noun

1. a shaded avenue, esp one that is open to the public

2. short for shopping mall

---

Etymology

Origin of mall

1635–45; the Mall, a fashionable tree-lined promenade in 18th-century London, where originally the game pall-mall ( def. ) was played; mell ²

Example Sentences

The sprawling indoor regional mall is a centerpiece of Moreno Valley serving customers from Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

From Los Angeles Times

Culiacán is a prosperous city, full of shopping malls, neat parks and fancy car dealerships.

From BBC

Michelle Argote, the stylist offering her low-cost services on pachuco night, worked at various stores in the outdoor mall as a teen, and has frequented the record store since it opened.

From Los Angeles Times

Disney’s own documentary “The Imagineering Story” took a tough-love approach, comparing some of its initial designs to those of a local mall.

From Los Angeles Times

Meanwhile, the shopping mall evolved from a place to buy things into a destination for all kinds of family entertainment, often boasting large food courts, multiplex theaters, indoor playgrounds, video arcades and more.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• market
• plaza
• shopping center
• shopping mall