pall-mall

[ pel-mel, pal-mal, pawl-mawl ]

noun
  1. a game, popular in the 17th century, in which a ball of boxwood was struck with a mallet in an attempt to drive it through a raised iron ring at the end of a playing alley.

  2. a playing alley on which this game was played.

Origin of pall-mall

1
1560–70; <Middle French pallemaille<Italian pallamaglio, equivalent to palla ball (<Langobardic ) + magliomallet (<Latin malleus). See ball1, mall, mell2

Words Nearby pall-mall

Other definitions for Pall Mall (2 of 2)

Pall Mall
[ pal-mal, pel-mel ]

noun
  1. a street in London, England, famed for its clubs.

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

How to use pall-mall in a sentence

  • That there may have been some dealings between the "pall-mall Gazette" and this influential party, is very possible.

    A History of Pendennis, Volume 1 | William Makepeace Thackeray
  • The writing is now excellent of its kind, but for the word 'Metropolis' and the phrase 'no great distance from' Pall Mall.

    The Hills and the Vale | Richard Jefferies

British Dictionary definitions for pall-mall (1 of 2)

pall-mall

/ (ˈpælˈmæl) /


nounobsolete
  1. a game in which a ball is driven by a mallet along an alley and through an iron ring

  2. the alley itself

Origin of pall-mall

1
C17: from obsolete French, from Italian pallamaglio, from palla ball + maglio mallet

British Dictionary definitions for Pall Mall (2 of 2)

Pall Mall

/ (ˈpæl ˈmæl) /


noun
  1. a street in central London, noted for its many clubs

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