mall

[ mawl; British also mal ]

See synonyms for mall on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.: Compare shopping center.
a large area, usually lined with shade trees and shrubbery, used as a public walk or promenade.

Chiefly Upstate New York. a strip of land, usually planted or paved, separating lanes of opposite traffic on highways, boulevards, etc.
the game of pall-mall.
the mallet used in the game of pall-mall.
the place or alley where pall-mall was played.

Origin of mall

1635–45; the Mall, a fashionable tree-lined promenade in 18th-century London, where originally the game pall-mall was played; see mell²

Words that may be confused with mall

mall , maul, maw

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use mall in a sentence

Today, the city is an Asian hipster outpost, with shopping malls, clothing boutiques, and mixologist-prepared cocktails.
Cambodia’s Smoke-and-Mirrors Democracy | David Shaftel | January 9, 2015 | THE DAILY BEAST
Gift cards are sold at kiosks in shopping malls or even websites that catering to this exchange market.
The Insane $11 Billion Scam at Retailers’ Return Desks | M.L. Nestel | December 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Now the city fills with travelers on package tours who stay at ultra-modern hotels and spend their money at glittering malls.
For Rent: Priceless Historic Sites | Elinor Betesh | November 16, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He thinks about his three children in the UK and the malls they go to, and feels vulnerable.
Westgate's Chilling Security Video Reveals Shopping Mall Bloodbath | Nina Strochlic | September 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
But Santa hangs out in malls and on street corners ringing bells.
Our Doomed Love Affair with Summer | P. J. O’Rourke | August 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST

There were some dead malls out in Worcester and the like, but I got this place for nothing.
Makers | Cory Doctorow
Down here it was giant malls, purpose-built dot-com buildings, and the occasional fun-park.
Makers | Cory Doctorow
Laundry lines stretched out in the parking-lots of former strip-malls.
Makers | Cory Doctorow
The hood hung down to her butt—it was East Coast bangbanger, as reinterpreted through the malls.
Makers | Cory Doctorow
The fourth was to open in Raleigh, in the Research Triangle, where the strip malls ran one into the next.
Makers | Cory Doctorow

British Dictionary definitions for mall

mall

/ (mæl, mɔːl) /

noun

a shaded avenue, esp one that is open to the public
US, Canadian, Australian and NZ short for shopping mall

Origin of mall

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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