wall
Americannoun
-
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.
-
Usually walls. a rampart raised for defensive purposes.
- Synonyms:
- bastion, barrier, bulwark, breastwork, battlement
-
an immaterial or intangible barrier, obstruction, etc., suggesting a wall.
a wall of prejudice.
-
a wall-like, enclosing part, thing, mass, etc..
a wall of fire;
a wall of troops.
-
an embankment to prevent flooding, as a levee or sea wall.
- Synonyms:
- dike
-
the outermost film or layer of structural material protecting, surrounding, and defining the physical limits of an object.
the wall of a blood cell.
-
Soccer. a line of defenders standing shoulder to shoulder in an attempt to block a free kick with their bodies.
-
Mining.
-
the side of a level or drift.
-
the overhanging or underlying side of a vein; a hanging wall or footwall.
-
adjective
-
of or relating to a wall.
wall space.
-
growing against or on a wall.
wall plants;
wall cress.
-
situated, placed, or installed in or on a wall.
wall oven;
a wall safe.
verb (used with object)
-
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.
-
to seal or fill (a doorway or other opening) with a wall.
to wall an unused entrance.
-
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
-
climb (the) walls, to become tense or frantic.
climbing the walls with boredom.
-
up the wall, into an acutely frantic, frustrated, or irritated state.
The constant tension in the office is driving everyone up the wall.
-
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.
-
off the wall,
-
beyond the realm of acceptability or reasonableness.
The figure you quoted for doing the work is off the wall.
-
markedly out of the ordinary; eccentric; bizarre.
Some of the clothes in the fashion show were too off the wall for the average customer.
-
-
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.
-
go to the wall,
-
to be defeated in a conflict or competition; yield.
-
to fail in business, especially to become bankrupt.
-
to be put aside or forgotten.
-
to take an extreme and determined position or measure.
I'd go to the wall to stop him from resigning.
-
-
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.
-
up against the wall,
-
placed against a wall to be executed by a firing squad.
-
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.
-
noun
-
-
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
-
( as modifier )
wall hangings
-
-
(often plural) a structure or rampart built to protect and surround a position or place for defensive purposes
-
Technical name: paries. anatomy any lining, membrane, or investing part that encloses or bounds a bodily cavity or structure
abdominal wall
-
mountaineering a vertical or almost vertical smooth rock face
-
anything that suggests a wall in function or effect
a wall of fire
a wall of prejudice
-
to try to achieve something impossible
-
to force into an awkward situation
-
to be ruined; collapse financially
-
slang to cause to become crazy or furious
-
slang to become crazy or furious
-
to be in a very difficult situation
-
See off-the-wall
-
See wall-to-wall
verb
-
to protect, provide, or confine with or as if with a wall
-
(often foll by up) to block (an opening) with a wall
-
to seal by or within a wall or walls
Other Word Forms
- unwall verb (used with object)
- wall-less adjective
- wall-like adjective
- walled adjective
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”; 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.
This is a job where you rent your first home, not buy, and don’t even bother to get a couch or hang your triptych of dogs playing blackjack on the wall.
The house I’m currently living in needs several repairs: There’s a leak in the downstairs wall, water is getting in between the house and the front porch and there have been sewage-line backups downstairs.
From MarketWatch
The state is considering two options for trees: One would require residents to trim branches within five feet of a house’s walls and roof; the other does not.
From Los Angeles Times
“I’m kind of excited to be a fly on the wall in a room with Spielberg and Scorsese and all these people,” he said ahead of the Golden Globes.
From Los Angeles Times
She has a print of a Vermeer on her wall.
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.
