mall

[mawl, mal]

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

/ mɔːl, mæl /

noun

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

2. short for shopping mall

Word History and Origins

Origin of mall¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of mall¹

C17: after The Mall, in St James's Park, London. See _pall-mall

Example Sentences

Oftentimes, the bus will be at a Radisson on a day off and there’s a mall across the highway.

From Los Angeles Times

After the blaze, the Browns rented an apartment in Chico so their daughter could finish her last year at Paradise High School, which held classes in a mall and then a warehouse in Chico.

From Los Angeles Times

Pro tip: Grab brunch at Beatrix in the same shopping mall before your visit.

From Salon

“We do a lot of outreach in the riverbeds, mountains, next to the freeway or near a mall. The second thing we do is search-and-rescue.”

From Los Angeles Times

The suspects eventually broke through and fled to awaiting vehicles in the mall’s valet parking section.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• market 
• plaza 
• shopping center 
• shopping mall