wall
Americannoun
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any of various permanent upright constructions having a length much greater than the thickness and presenting a continuous surface except where pierced by doors, windows, etc.: used for shelter, protection, or privacy, or to subdivide interior space, to support floors, roofs, or the like, to retain earth, to fence in an area, etc.
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Usually walls. a rampart raised for defensive purposes.
- Synonyms:
- bastion, barrier, bulwark, breastwork, battlement
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an immaterial or intangible barrier, obstruction, etc., suggesting a wall.
a wall of prejudice.
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a wall-like, enclosing part, thing, mass, etc..
a wall of fire;
a wall of troops.
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an embankment to prevent flooding, as a levee or sea wall.
- Synonyms:
- dike
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the outermost film or layer of structural material protecting, surrounding, and defining the physical limits of an object.
the wall of a blood cell.
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Soccer. a line of defenders standing shoulder to shoulder in an attempt to block a free kick with their bodies.
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Mining.
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the side of a level or drift.
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the overhanging or underlying side of a vein; a hanging wall or footwall.
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adjective
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of or relating to a wall.
wall space.
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growing against or on a wall.
wall plants;
wall cress.
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situated, placed, or installed in or on a wall.
wall oven;
a wall safe.
verb (used with object)
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to enclose, shut off, divide, protect, border, etc., with or as if with a wall (often followed by in oroff ).
to wall the yard; to wall in the play area;
He is walled in by lack of opportunity.
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to seal or fill (a doorway or other opening) with a wall.
to wall an unused entrance.
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to seal or entomb (something or someone) within a wall (usually followed byup ).
The workmen had walled up the cat quite by mistake.
- Synonyms:
- immure
idioms
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climb (the) walls, to become tense or frantic.
climbing the walls with boredom.
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up the wall, into an acutely frantic, frustrated, or irritated state.
The constant tension in the office is driving everyone up the wall.
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drive / push to the wall, to force into a desperate situation; humiliate or ruin completely.
Not content with merely winning the match, they used every opportunity to push the inferior team to the wall.
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off the wall,
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beyond the realm of acceptability or reasonableness.
The figure you quoted for doing the work is off the wall.
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markedly out of the ordinary; eccentric; bizarre.
Some of the clothes in the fashion show were too off the wall for the average customer.
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hit the wall, (of long-distance runners) to reach a point in a race, usually after 20 miles, when the body's fuels are virtually depleted and willpower becomes crucial to be able to finish.
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go to the wall,
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to be defeated in a conflict or competition; yield.
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to fail in business, especially to become bankrupt.
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to be put aside or forgotten.
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to take an extreme and determined position or measure.
I'd go to the wall to stop him from resigning.
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go over the wall, to break out of prison.
Roadblocks have been set up in an effort to capture several convicts who went over the wall.
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up against the wall,
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placed against a wall to be executed by a firing squad.
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in a crucial or critical position, especially one in which defeat or failure seems imminent.
Unless sales improve next month, the company will be up against the wall.
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noun
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a vertical construction made of stone, brick, wood, etc, with a length and height much greater than its thickness, used to enclose, divide, or support
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( as modifier )
wall hangings
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(often plural) a structure or rampart built to protect and surround a position or place for defensive purposes
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Technical name: paries. anatomy any lining, membrane, or investing part that encloses or bounds a bodily cavity or structure
abdominal wall
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mountaineering a vertical or almost vertical smooth rock face
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anything that suggests a wall in function or effect
a wall of fire
a wall of prejudice
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to try to achieve something impossible
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to force into an awkward situation
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to be ruined; collapse financially
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slang to cause to become crazy or furious
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slang to become crazy or furious
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to be in a very difficult situation
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See off-the-wall
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See wall-to-wall
verb
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to protect, provide, or confine with or as if with a wall
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(often foll by up) to block (an opening) with a wall
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to seal by or within a wall or walls
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wallsimple
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wallssimple
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have walledperfect
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has walledperfect
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am wallingprogressive
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are wallingprogressive
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is wallingprogressive
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have been wallingperfect progressive
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has been wallingperfect progressive
Past
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walledsimple
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had walledperfect
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was wallingprogressive
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were wallingprogressive
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had been wallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wall
First recorded before 900; (for the noun) Middle English; Old English w(e)all, from Latin vallum “palisade,” derivative of vallus “stake, post”; see wale 1; verb derivative of the noun
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:
Matched up against the most tactically sophisticated team at the tournament, Les Bleus fell into traps, made mistakes, and never punched through Spain’s shifting wall of defenders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
He has hailed the new arrangements as bringing down "the last wall" inside the EU, saying they would create a zone of shared prosperity.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
"I think that was necessary. The analogy we had used was that I was throwing myself at a brick wall," she added.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The cube-like adapter converts the current from the wall into lower-voltage power that flows through the cord and into the device.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
But now, as it thundered over a sheer wall of rock, it was appalling in its fury.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
They described how it drove into "surrounding farmland where it had collided with fences and walls".
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Toward the back, the walls filled with displays of patches from first-responder agencies worldwide — and in the seats beneath those patches, often, sat police and firefighters, whose company Fanara prized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Inside, the furniture, walls and ceiling are completely blackened, and parts of the ceiling is peeling off.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
“They’re armoring the shoreline with rocks and cement walls, sometimes without permits. And Quidnessett is the poster child.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
In mid-November the rains started in earnest, chilly, drenching day-long downpours that left beads of moisture even on the inside walls.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
"A walled garden is only a refuge if the people inside chose the wall, can see over it, and may leave when they wish."
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
The walled enclosure, full of scented walks, evoked the feeling of a spiritual sanctuary—a quality it shared with the Iranian gardens she visited and wrote about in 2003’s “Gardens of Persia.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
The dig revealed a walled complex that had remained largely undisturbed since Roman times.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 5, 2026
Beyond security concerns, authoritarian leaders often house senior officials on military bases or within walled compounds as a way of minimizing the possibility of a coup.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
Matt heard him outside in the walled garden.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
A. Prenups are no longer just for the ultrawealthy walling off family money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
America has prospered for centuries not by walling itself off but by attracting people who bring energy, ideas, and investment.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2025
On Sunday, day three of the protests, National Guard troops arrived to LA and were seen walling off protesters outside of a federal building that contains a detention centre.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2025
Work crews followed them in, razing trees and greenery and walling off the space by double-stacking heavy metal cargo containers around the entire park perimeter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
I want to tell her that the only thing you get from walling yourself in is empty.
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
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.
