stonewall

American  

[stohn-wawl] / ˈstoʊnˌwɔl /

verb (used without object)

• stonewalls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stonewalled,
  past participle,  past
• stonewalling
  present participle

1. to engage in stonewalling.

2. British. filibuster.

3. Cricket. (of a batsman) to play a defensive game, as by persistently blocking the ball instead of batting it for distance and runs.

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verb (used with object)

• stonewalls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stonewalled,
  past participle,  past
• stonewalling
  present participle

1. Informal. to block, stall, or resist intentionally.

   lobbying efforts to stonewall passage of the legislation.

2. British. to obstruct (the passage of a legislative bill) in Parliament, especially by excessive or prolonged debate.

adjective

1. pertaining to or characteristic of stonewalling.

   a new round of stonewall tactics.

stonewall British  

/ ˌstəʊnˈwɔːl /

verb

1. (intr) cricket (of a batsman) to play defensively

2. to obstruct or hinder (parliamentary business)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• stonewaller
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• stonewalling
  present
• stonewalled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stonewall
  simple
• stonewalls
  simple
• have stonewalled
  perfect
• has stonewalled
  perfect
• am stonewalling
  progressive
• are stonewalling
  progressive
• is stonewalling
  progressive
• have been stonewalling
  perfect progressive
• has been stonewalling
  perfect progressive

Past

• stonewalled
  simple
• had stonewalled
  perfect
• was stonewalling
  progressive
• were stonewalling
  progressive
• had been stonewalling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stonewall
  simple
• will have stonewalled
  perfect
• will be stonewalling
  progressive
• will have been stonewalling
  perfect progressive

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stonewall stonewalls stonewalled stonewalling

But Kornev is young and infused with an idealistic zeal, refusing to let these goons stonewall him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that seeks to stonewall the project.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025

They might say they're going to work on it, and stonewall you for years and years and never actually do anything.

From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2024

For a public agency to stonewall that way is outrageous.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2024

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

Not when Lawson blows past Becton, and not when Becton stonewalls Lawson.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 1, 2021

Storytelling, jokes and stonewalls make this section feel like Ireland, not ancient Greece.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 19, 2017

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

I look beneath the stonewalls, where the verdure is richest, in hopes that a little company of violets, or some solitary bud, prophetic of the summer, may be there.

From Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 2. by Hawthorne, Nathaniel

Replimune has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information on the review process, but the FDA has stonewalled its requests.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026

Kimberly would later become a powerful champion of parents who felt stonewalled and "lied to" by the authorities.

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

After stonewalling every adult who tells him to open up, Robby does just that with an orphaned infant, saying that he, too, was abandoned by his mother as a child.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

“If Starbucks keeps stonewalling, they should expect to see their business grind to a halt. The ball is in Starbucks’ court.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2025

But Johnson is really being tied up in knots for his stonewalling over the Jeffrey Epstein files.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2025

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

Related Words

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