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.

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mall British  

/ mɔːl, mæl /

noun

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

2. short for shopping mall

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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

But voters walking through a grocery store or a mall mostly don’t think that way.

From The Wall Street Journal

And when we finish at the mall, I have to go to Costco.

From Los Angeles Times

If the crypto universe is like a shopping mall, then bitcoin has long been the anchor store that draws the most foot traffic.

From The Wall Street Journal

In front of the island's mega mall, Mark Ortego braved the biting cold to hustle to his car in the sprawling parking lot and said he feels positively about independence.

From Barron's

Layton strives to capture L.A. and he gets parts of it right: the side streets and strip malls and streaky headlights at night.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• market
• plaza
• shopping center
• shopping mall