wall

 
Pronunciation: /wɔːl/

noun

  • 1a continuous vertical brick or stone structure that encloses or divides an area of land: a garden wall
  • an upright side of a building or room: opulent rooms with tapestries on the walls
  • any high vertical surface, especially one that is imposing in scale: the eastern wall of the valley figurative flash floods sent a six-foot wall of water through the village
  • (the Wall)short for Berlin Wall. he was on location in Germany while the Wall was tumbling down
  • 2a thing regarded as a protective or restrictive barrier: police investigating the murders met a wall of silence from witnesses
  • Soccer a line of defenders forming a barrier against a free kick taken near the penalty area: he curled a free kick around the wall for a late equalizer
  • 3 Anatomy & Zoology the membranous outer layer or lining of an organ or cavity: the wall of the stomach
  • 4 Mining the rock enclosing a lode or seam.

verb

[with object]
  • enclose (an area) within walls, especially for protection or privacy: parts of the city’s East End had been walled off with concrete barricades (as adjective walled) a walled garden
  • (wall something up) block or seal a place by building a wall around or across it: one doorway has been walled up
  • (wall someone/thing in/up) confine or imprison someone or something in a restricted or sealed place: the grey tenements walled in the space completely

Phrases

between you and me and the wall

see bedpost.

drive someone up the wall

informal make someone very irritated or angry: it’s driving me up the wall trying to find out who did what

go to the wall

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

go up the wall

informal
become very angry in reaction to something: this causes the dog to go up the wall and bark his head off

hit the wall

(of an athlete) experience a sudden loss of energy in a long race: marathon runners found they often hit the wall after 17 or 18 miles

off the wall

North American informal
  • 1eccentric or unconventional: a zany, wacky, off-the-wall weirdo
  • 2angry: the president was off the wall about the article

walls have ears

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

wall-to-wall

(of a carpet) fitted to cover an entire floor: he padded across the wall-to-wall carpeting
informal very numerous or extensive: wall-to-wall media coverage

Derivatives

wall-less

adjective

Origin:

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