wallpaper

[wawl-pey-per]

noun

1. paper, usually with printed decorative patterns in color, for pasting on and covering the walls or ceilings of rooms, hallways, etc.

2. any fabric, foil, vinyl material, etc., used as a wall or ceiling covering.

3. Computers.,  a design or picture in the background of the primary display screen of a graphical user interface.

   Personalize your tablet by changing the wallpaper.

verb (used with object)

1. to put wallpaper on (a wall, ceiling, etc.) or to furnish (a room, house, etc.) with wallpaper.

wallpaper

/ ˈwɔːlˌpeɪpə /

noun

1. paper usually printed or embossed with designs for pasting onto walls and ceilings

2. 1. something pleasant but bland which serves as an unobtrusive background

   2. ( as modifier )

      wallpaper music

3. computing a graphics file that can be displayed in certain applications behind or around the main dialogue boxes, working display areas, etc, for decoration

verb

1. to cover (a surface) with wallpaper

Word History and Origins

Origin of wallpaper¹

First recorded in 1820–30; wall + paper

Example Sentences

‘Oh, I love wallpaper. If I could find a house with some modern wallpaper I would really, really be into that.’

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The showily exoticized wallpaper, sold throughout Europe and in North America by celebrated manufacturer Joseph Dufour, was the culmination of Western public fascination with British Royal Navy Capt. James Cook’s three voyages to the Pacific.

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Daniel Brown, 35, has just bought a house in Skipton and is borrowing one of the library's most popular items, a wallpaper stripper, so he can decorate his new home.

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Rather than discretely framed, his altered photograph is printed on a vinyl panel applied like wallpaper spreading 8 feet high and 19 feet wide, above the wainscoting of the gallery wall.

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If you’ve spent time in the San Fernando Valley, it would be easy to view the overhead electrical transmission lines that stretch for more than 20 miles simply as essential wallpaper of modern living.

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