Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

wall

Syllabification: (wall)
Pronunciation: /wôl/
Translate wall | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of wall

noun

  • a continuous vertical brick or stone structure that encloses or divides an area of land:a garden wall farmland traversed by drystone walls
  • a side of a building or room, typically forming part of the building’s structure.
  • any high vertical surface or facade, especially one that is imposing in scale:the eastern wall of the valley figurativeflash floods sent a 6-foot wall of water through the village
  • a thing perceived as a protective or restrictive barrier:a wall of silence
  • Soccer a line of defenders forming a barrier against a free kick taken near the penalty area.
  • short for climbing wall.
  • Mining the rock enclosing a lode or seam or forming the side of a mine-working.
  • Anatomy & Zoology the membranous outer layer or lining of an organ or cavity:the wall of the stomach
  • Biologysee cell wall.

verb

[with object]
  • enclose (an area) within walls, especially to protect it or lend it some privacy:housing areas that are walled off from the indigenous population
  • (wall something up) block or seal a place by building a wall around or across it:one doorway has been walled up
  • (wall someone/something in/up) confine or imprison someone or something in a restricted or sealed place:the gray tenements walled in the space completely

Phrases

between you, me, and the wall

see lamppost.

drive someone up the wall

informal make someone very irritated or angry.

go to the wall

informal
  • 1(of a business) fail; go out of business.
  • 2support someone or something, no matter what the cost to oneself:the tendency for poets to go to the wall for their beliefs

hit the wall

(of an athlete) experience a sudden loss of energy in a long race.

off the wall

informal
  • 1eccentric or unconventional.
  • 2(of a person) angry:the president was off the wall about the article
  • 3(of an accusation) without basis or foundation.

walls have ears

proverb be careful what you say as people may be eavesdropping.

wall-to-wall

(of a carpet or other floor covering) fitted to cover an entire floor.
informal denoting great extent or number:wall-to-wall customers

Derivatives

wall-less

adjective

Origin:

Old English, from Latin vallum 'rampart', from vallus 'stake'

wall in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of wall in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

Word of the day

offing

/ ˈɒfɪŋ /
noun
the more distant part of the sea in view …