wallpaper

[wawl-pey-per]

noun

1. paper, usually with printed decorative patterns in color, for pasting on and covering the walls or ceilings of rooms, hallways, etc.

2. any fabric, foil, vinyl material, etc., used as a wall or ceiling covering.

3. Computers.,  a design or picture in the background of the primary display screen of a graphical user interface.

   Personalize your tablet by changing the wallpaper.

verb (used with object)

1. to put wallpaper on (a wall, ceiling, etc.) or to furnish (a room, house, etc.) with wallpaper.

wallpaper

/ ˈwɔːlˌpeɪpə /

noun

1. paper usually printed or embossed with designs for pasting onto walls and ceilings

2. 1. something pleasant but bland which serves as an unobtrusive background

   2. ( as modifier )

      wallpaper music

3. computing a graphics file that can be displayed in certain applications behind or around the main dialogue boxes, working display areas, etc, for decoration

verb

1. to cover (a surface) with wallpaper

Word History and Origins

Origin of wallpaper¹

First recorded in 1820–30; wall + paper

Example Sentences

The master bathroom comes with a large soaking tub and patterned wallpaper.

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He flings his lunch against the wall, shattering a piece of Nancy Reagan’s china and leaving a trail of ketchup and hamburger grease on the wallpaper and faux gilt sconce recently procured from Home Depot.

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And the usually gruff and unsentimental Lord Fredrick Ashton was discussing wallpaper with Mrs. Clarke and cheerily picking baby names, and with a full moon coming on, too!

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It had been many months since the first time she and the children had ventured to the attic and discovered the ominous landscape that had been painted there, then hidden beneath layers of wallpaper.

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The moonlight played on the leaf-and-ivy pattern of the carpet and the floral print of the wallpaper.

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