Jump to:

• Chinese Wall
  Chinese Wall

  noun

  Great Wall of China.
• Chinese wall
  Chinese wall

  noun

  a notional barrier between the parts of a business, esp between the market makers and brokers of a stock-exchange business, across which no information should pass to the detriment of clients

Chinese Wall

American  

noun

Informal.

1. Great Wall of China.

2. an insuperable barrier or obstacle, as to understanding.

---

Chinese wall British  

noun

1. a notional barrier between the parts of a business, esp between the market makers and brokers of a stock-exchange business, across which no information should pass to the detriment of clients

2. an insurmountable obstacle

---

Etymology

Origin of Chinese Wall

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

So they had stayed put Friday when Butte County deputies drove through with loudspeakers and ordered evacuation of a large swath of mountain land off Chinese Wall Road.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2017

When I was managing Korrespondent, which at the time was the leading newsmagazine in Ukraine, we didn’t have a Chinese Wall or a picket fence.

From Forbes • Mar. 29, 2015

And when the Chinese Wall was built, where did the masons go for lunch?

From Salon • May 21, 2012

Others have noted what he calls France's "Chinese Wall psychosis"�blind trust in the Maginot Line�but Koestler traces the roots of the malady to the 19th Century.

From Time Magazine Archive

As a barrier against the incursions of the Huns, he began the erection of the celebrated Chinese Wall, a great rampart extending for about 1500 miles along the northern frontier of the country.

From General History for Colleges and High Schools by Myers, Philip Van Ness