wall

[ wawl ]

noun

1. any of various permanent upright constructions having a length much greater than the thickness and presenting a continuous surface except where pierced by doors, windows, etc.: used for shelter, protection, or privacy, or to subdivide interior space, to support floors, roofs, or the like, to retain earth, to fence in an area, etc.
2. Usually walls. a rampart raised for defensive purposes.

   Synonyms: bastion, barrier, bulwark, breastwork, battlement

3. an immaterial or intangible barrier, obstruction, etc., suggesting a wall:

   a wall of prejudice.

4. a wall-like, enclosing part, thing, mass, etc.:

   a wall of fire;

   a wall of troops.

5. an embankment to prevent flooding, as a levee or sea wall.

   Synonyms: dike

6. the outermost film or layer of structural material protecting, surrounding, and defining the physical limits of an object:

   the wall of a blood cell.

7. Soccer. a line of defenders standing shoulder to shoulder in an attempt to block a free kick with their bodies.
8. Mining.
   1. the side of a level or drift.
   2. the overhanging or underlying side of a vein; a hanging wall or footwall.

adjective

1. of or relating to a wall:

   wall space.

2. growing against or on a wall:

   wall plants;

   wall cress.

3. situated, placed, or installed in or on a wall:

   wall oven;

   a wall safe.

verb (used with object)

1. to enclose, shut off, divide, protect, border, etc., with or as if with a wall (often followed by in or off ):

   to wall the yard; to wall in the play area;

   He is walled in by lack of opportunity.

2. to seal or fill (a doorway or other opening) with a wall:

   to wall an unused entrance.

3. to seal or entomb (something or someone) within a wall (usually followed by up ):

   The workmen had walled up the cat quite by mistake.

   Synonyms: immure

wall

/ wɔːl /

noun

1. 1. a vertical construction made of stone, brick, wood, etc, with a length and height much greater than its thickness, used to enclose, divide, or support
   2. ( as modifier ) mural

      wall hangings

2. often plural a structure or rampart built to protect and surround a position or place for defensive purposes
3. anatomy any lining, membrane, or investing part that encloses or bounds a bodily cavity or structure Technical nameparies parietal

   abdominal wall

4. mountaineering a vertical or almost vertical smooth rock face
5. anything that suggests a wall in function or effect

   a wall of prejudice

   a wall of fire

6. bang one's head against a brick wall
   bang one's head against a brick wall to try to achieve something impossible
7. drive to the wall
   drive to the wallpush to the wall to force into an awkward situation
8. go to the wall
   go to the wall to be ruined; collapse financially
9. drive up the wall slang.
   drive up the wall to cause to become crazy or furious
10. go up the wall slang.
    go up the wall to become crazy or furious
11. have one's back to the wall
    have one's back to the wall to be in a very difficult situation
12. See off-the-wall
    See off-the-wall
13. See wall-to-wall
    See wall-to-wall

verb

1. to protect, provide, or confine with or as if with a wall
2. often foll by up to block (an opening) with a wall
3. often foll byin or up to seal by or within a wall or walls

Derived Forms

• ˈwall-less, adjective
• walled, adjective
• ˈwall-ˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• wall-less adjective
• wall-like adjective
• un·wall verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of wall¹

First recorded before 900; (for the noun) Middle English; Old English w(e)all, from Latin vallum “palisade,” derivative of vallus “stake, post”; wale ¹; verb derivative of the noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of wall¹

Old English weall, from Latin vallum palisade, from vallus stake

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. climb (the) walls, Slang. to become tense or frantic:

   climbing the walls with boredom.

2. drive / push to the wall, to force into a desperate situation; humiliate or ruin completely:

   Not content with merely winning the match, they used every opportunity to push the inferior team to the wall.

3. go over the wall, Slang. to break out of prison:

   Roadblocks have been set up in an effort to capture several convicts who went over the wall.

4. go to the wall,
   1. to be defeated in a conflict or competition; yield.
   2. to fail in business, especially to become bankrupt.
   3. to be put aside or forgotten.
   4. to take an extreme and determined position or measure:

      I'd go to the wall to stop him from resigning.

5. hit the wall, (of long-distance runners) to reach a point in a race, usually after 20 miles, when the body's fuels are virtually depleted and willpower becomes crucial to be able to finish.
6. off the wall, Slang.
   1. beyond the realm of acceptability or reasonableness:

      The figure you quoted for doing the work is off the wall.

   2. markedly out of the ordinary; eccentric; bizarre:

      Some of the clothes in the fashion show were too off the wall for the average customer.

7. up against the wall,
   1. placed against a wall to be executed by a firing squad.
   2. in a crucial or critical position, especially one in which defeat or failure seems imminent:

      Unless sales improve next month, the company will be up against the wall.

8. up the wall, Slang. into an acutely frantic, frustrated, or irritated state:

   The constant tension in the office is driving everyone up the wall.

More idioms and phrases containing wall

• back to the wall
• beat one's head against the wall
• between you and me and the lamppost (four walls)
• climb the walls
• drive someone crazy (up the wall)
• fly on the wall
• go to the wall
• handwriting on the wall
• hole in the wall
• off the wall
• run into a stone wall

Example Sentences

Mount them on the wall in your kiddo’s bedroom, or build a backyard climbing wall like this one.

From Outside Online

Drone imagery alone can’t establish whether rituals occurred at the buried earthwork or if, perhaps, non-combatants hid behind walls along its borders when the site was attacked.

From Science News

This universal wall offers a lifetime’s worth of routes, from V4 to V14, on an eight-by-twelve-foot surface.

From Outside Online

Recently, the actor let down his walls a bit to tell the story of how he met his wife, Tomasina Tate, 20 years ago—a fate made possible by fellow actor Jamie Foxx.

From Essence.com

Ocean Spray isn’t the only legacy brand looking to build out new brands within its walls.

From Digiday

A Wall Street person should not be allowed to help oversee the Dodd-Frank reforms.

From The Daily Beast

It was a brick wall that we turned into the on-ramp of a highway.

From The Daily Beast

It reminded me a bit of an alternative take on The Wolf of Wall Street—through the Toni and Candace lens.

From The Daily Beast

Marvin hops over the edge of his retaining wall, which he built.

From The Daily Beast

He scrambled outside to find a 25-foot-wide crater just beyond the mud wall surrounding his family compound.

From The Daily Beast

A flash of surprise and pleasure lit the fine eyes of the haughty beauty perched up there on the palace wall.

From Project Gutenberg

Kind of a reception-room in there—guess I know a reception-room from a hole in the wall.

From Project Gutenberg

Distance, the uncertain light, and imagination, magnified it to a high wall; high as the wall of China.

From Project Gutenberg

He leant against the wall of his refuge, notwithstanding this boast, and licked the ice to moisten his parched lips.

From Project Gutenberg

A little boy aged two years and four months was deprived of a pencil from Thursday to Sunday for scribbling on the wall-paper.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bar
• barricade
• barrier
• block
• dam
• embankment
• facade
• fence
• screen
• side
• surface