stonewall
Americanverb (used without object)
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to engage in stonewalling.
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British. filibuster.
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Cricket. (of a batsman) to play a defensive game, as by persistently blocking the ball instead of batting it for distance and runs.
verb (used with object)
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Informal. to block, stall, or resist intentionally.
lobbying efforts to stonewall passage of the legislation.
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British. to obstruct (the passage of a legislative bill) in Parliament, especially by excessive or prolonged debate.
adjective
verb
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(intr) cricket (of a batsman) to play defensively
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to obstruct or hinder (parliamentary business)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stonewallsimple
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stonewallssimple
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have stonewalledperfect
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has stonewalledperfect
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am stonewallingprogressive
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are stonewallingprogressive
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is stonewallingprogressive
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have been stonewallingperfect progressive
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has been stonewallingperfect progressive
Past
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stonewalledsimple
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had stonewalledperfect
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was stonewallingprogressive
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were stonewallingprogressive
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had been stonewallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stonewall
v. and adj. use of noun phrase stone wall
Explanation
To stonewall is to deliberately hold something up or delay it, especially by refusing to cooperate or answer questions. A big company might stonewall when its workers try to negotiate for higher pay — and your parents might stonewall when you try to negotiate for a higher allowance. A press secretary stonewalls when she avoids directly answering a reporter's pointed questions, and you stonewall when you change the subject rather than commit to visiting your grandma. The word stonewall was coined as a nickname for Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson, who was described as "standing like a stone wall" as the enemy approached. It was originally a noun, meaning "an act of obstruction."
Vocabulary lists containing stonewall
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Those that stonewall or improvise under pressure prolong the damage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
But Kornev is young and infused with an idealistic zeal, refusing to let these goons stonewall him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
"At the time I thought it was a stonewall penalty," said Hourihane.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2026
Few could have expected the Huskies to stonewall the Ducks like that and equally surprising was Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s decision to eschew going for it on fourth down on three short-yardage situations.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
Several were sitting back on their haunches, their claws scraping at the chalky stonewall that flanked the waterfall.
From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins
And then, when Tim stonewalls him about stealing a gun, Gaitok doesn’t respond with the obvious “dude, there’s video.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2025
Storytelling, jokes and stonewalls make this section feel like Ireland, not ancient Greece.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 19, 2017
Bosch finds out, but when he tries to report his findings, the billionaire’s staff stonewalls him.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 10, 2016
The high mountain meadows full of their own wilting flowers, the peaks disappearing in clouds, rain beginning to fall in planets, the stonewalls in their majesty marking out this hallowed piece of land.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 5, 2016
Up-up-up with incredible bumps and bouncings, trees, bushes, stonewalls went rushing to the sky!
From The White Linen Nurse by Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell
“Harvard sued us. Harvard stonewalled us on document requests to which we were entitled. Harvard is defiant. And they’ve wasted time with settlement negotiations that I believe were not in good faith.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
For years they felt stonewalled, lied to and gaslit.
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2026
Both the army and the RSF have previously stonewalled negotiations brokered by the US and Saudi Arabia.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
New Zealand police in Paris, stonewalled by French officials, found themselves translating the local newspapers and sending that information straight back to Auckland.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025
Ang Dorje hailed from Pangboche, an aggregation of stonewalled houses and terraced potato fields clinging to a rugged hillside at 13,000 feet.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
And even, to some degree, with the bureaucratic stonewalling they run into constantly, and the seemingly blasé attitude of state officialdom about destroying records on cold cases, or just responding to phone calls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
For months, his staff offered only the vaguest references to a medical issue, stonewalling reporters and leaving the voters of New Jersey’s seventh congressional district completely unrepresented.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026
On Tuesday, Tillis said her responses to the committee amounted to stonewalling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
Elysée officials have told journalists that Macron was frustrated by his repeated attempts to build bridges to Algeria constantly coming to nothing because of Algerian stonewalling.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2024
He has found that he can find out much of what he needs to know just by focusing on what he calls the Four Horsemen: defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism, and contempt.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
