wall
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /wɔːl/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /wɔl/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /wɑl/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɔːl
Etymology 1
From Middle English wal, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, earthwork, rampart, dam, rocky shore, cliff”), from Proto-West Germanic *wall (“wall, rampart, entrenchment”), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, entrenchment, palisade”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Perhaps conflated with waw (“a wall within a house or dwelling, a room partition”), from Middle English wawe, from Old English wāg, wāh (“an interior wall, divider”), see waw. Cognate with North Frisian wal (“wall”), Saterland Frisian Waal (“wall, rampart, mound”), Dutch wal (“wall, rampart, embankment”), German Wall (“rampart, mound, embankment”), Swedish vall (“mound, wall, bank”). More at wallow, walk.
Noun
![](Images/wiktionary/Stone_wall_with_slate_toppers_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1379083.jpg.webp)
wall (plural walls)
- A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.
- A structure built for defense surrounding a city, castle etc.
- The town wall was surrounded by a moat.
- 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
- From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.
- Each of the substantial structures acting either as the exterior of or divisions within a structure.
- We're adding another wall in this room during the remodeling. The wind blew against the walls of the tent.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
- […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess:
- Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.
- A point of desperation.
- A point of defeat or extinction.
- March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian:
- They want Abramovich out for obvious reasons, including the optics, and they do not want to send Chelsea to the wall as they consider the club to be of cultural significance to the country.
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- An impediment to free movement.
- A wall of police officers met the protesters before they reached the capitol steps.
- The butterfly Lasiommata megera.
- Synonym: wall brown
- 2015 November 24, Patrick Barkham, “Pesticide may be reason butterfly numbers are falling in UK, says study”, in The Guardian:
- Researchers found that 15 of 17 species which commonly live on farmland – including the small tortoiseshell, small skipper and wall butterfly – show declines associated with increasing neonic use.
- (often in combination) A barrier.
- a seawall; a firewall
- A barrier to vision.
- Something with the apparent solidity and dimensions of a building wall.
- a wall of sound; a wall of water
- (anatomy, zoology, botany) A divisive or containing structure in an organ or cavity.
- 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 4-5:
- The epidermal cells of the capsule wall of Jubulopsis, with nodose "trigones" at the angles, are very reminiscent of what one finds in Frullania spp.
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- (auction) A fictional bidder used to increase the price at an auction.
- Synonym: chandelier
- (US, slang, medicine) A doctor who tries to admit as few patients as possible.
- Antonym: sieve
- (soccer) A line of defenders set up between an opposing free-kick taker and the goal.
- 2011 January 23, Alistair Magowan, “Blackburn 2-0 West Brom”, in BBC:
- Blackburn were the recipients of another dose of fortune when from another Thomas pass Odemwingie was brought down by Jones inside the penalty area, but referee Mark Clattenburg awarded a free-kick which Chris Brunt slammed into the wall.
-
- (roller derby) Two or more blockers skating together so as to impede the opposing team.
- 2013, Ellen Parnavelas, The Roller Derby Athlete (page 48)
- It can also be used to maintain the presence of a wall when one of the blockers who makes up the wall is picked off by an opposing blocker attempting to shut down the wall.
- 2013, Ellen Parnavelas, The Roller Derby Athlete (page 48)
- (mining) Any of the surfaces of rock enclosing the lode.
- (Internet) A personal notice board listing messages of interest to a particular user.
- (role-playing games) A character that has high defenses, thereby reducing the amount of damage taken from the opponent’s attacks.
- (slang, seduction community, chiefly definite) The stage of biological aging where physical appearance and attractiveness start to deteriorate rapidly.
- 1996 December 27, “The Definitive Answer to "Why Nice Guys Finish Last"”, in alt.romance, Usenet:
- Depreciation of assets happens. Prepare yourself
Marla. Get ready for the wall.
- 2001 February 2, “what a drag it is getting old”, in soc.singles, Usenet:
- At what age would you peg the
'wall' to be for men, on or thereabouts?
- 2001 June 19, “the laws of biomechanics”, in soc.singles, Usenet:
- I have never had a problem getting the attention of men. I'm 44
and there's no wall staring me in the face
- 2002 January 22, “towards a useful smv metric”, in soc.singles, Usenet:
- That was only six
years later and Natasha is not near the wall yet
- 2015 July 20, “catcalls are bad”, in rec.sport.football.college, Usenet:
- As for the wall....Im convinced part of this is just something us guys tell ourselves to 'get back'(in our minds) at all the girls who wouldn't sleep with us 5-10 years ago
-
- (historical) The right or privilege of taking the side of the road near the wall when encountering another pedestrian.
- 1822, The Pamphleteer (page 118)
- All persons, in walking the streets, whose right sides are next the wall, are intitled to take the wall.
- 2017, Catharina Löffler, Walking in the City (page 135)
- Taking the wall thus was also a social distinction. An entire episode in the second book is therefore dedicated “to whom to give the wall” and “to whom to refuse the wall” (II. 4564).
- 1822, The Pamphleteer (page 118)
Synonyms
- (rampart): rampart
- (fictional bidder at an auction): chandelier
- (personal notice board): profile
Meronyms
- (rampart): terreplein (level walkway); parapet, crenellation (minor secondary wall protecting the terreplein); banquette (area elevated above the terreplein for use by defenders)
Derived terms
- abdominal wall
- accent wall
- adiabatic wall
- Apartheid Wall
- backs to the wall
- back to the wall
- back wall
- balls to the wall
- bang one's head against a brick wall
- beat one's head against a stone wall
- Berlin Wall
- Bloch wall
- block wall
- blue wall
- blue wall of silence
- bounce off the walls
- break the fourth wall
- breast wall
- brick wall
- brick-wall limiter
- café wall illusion
- cavity wall
- cell wall
- cell-wall
- chest wall
- Chinese wall
- city wall
- climbing wall
- climb the walls
- cookie wall
- cosmic wall
- curtain wall
- dead wall
- diaphragm wall
- domain wall
- drive someone up the wall
- dry stone wall
- dry wall
- drywall
- dwarf wall
- ethical wall
- fall of the wall
- feature wall
- fifth wall
- firewall
- flower wall
- fly on the wall
- force someone's back to the wall
- fourth-wall
- fourth wall
- fourth wall joke
- four-wall
- front wall
- fruit wall
- get the wall
- go to the wall
- Great Wall of China
- green wall
- Hadrian's Wall
- handwriting on the wall
- hanging wall
- Heddon-on-the-Wall
- hit a brick wall
- hit a wall
- hit the wall
- hole-in-the-wall
- hot wall
- house wall
- house-wall
- Jersey wall
- jersey wall
- knee wall
- know someone from a hole in the wall
- ladder wall
- ledger wall
- like speaking to a brick wall
- like talking to a brick wall
- like talking to a wall
- living wall
- nail Jell-O to a wall
- nail someone to the wall
- Néel wall
- office-wall
- office wall
- off-the-wall
- off the wall
- paper wall
- party wall
- paywall
- pellitory of the wall
- pick bids off the wall
- piss money up the wall
- piss something up the wall
- pony wall
- power wall
- primary cell wall
- rat wall
- red wall
- retaining wall
- Rockwall
- rope wall
- run into a brick wall
- screen wall
- sea wall
- secondary cell wall
- shear wall
- shield wall
- side wall
- sound wall
- Spanish wall
- stare at the wall
- stone-wall
- stonewall, stone wall
- talk to a brick wall
- text wall
- the apples on the other side of the wall are the sweetest
- the writing is on the wall
- thoracic wall
- throw enough mud at the wall and some of it will stick
- throw one's hat over the wall
- throw spaghetti against the wall
- throw spaghetti at the wall
- throw things at the wall and see what sticks
- tieback wall
- toe wall
- Trombe wall
- tsunami wall
- up against the wall
- up the wall
- up the walls
- wag-at-the-wall
- wag-on-the-wall
- wall barley
- wall bars
- wall brown
- wall chart
- wall chaser
- wall clock
- wall cloud
- wall covering
- wall crawler
- wall-crawler
- wall energy
- wall-eyed
- wall fan
- wallflower
- wall-flower
- wall flower
- wall game
- wall hanger
- wall hanging
- wall humping
- wall jump
- wall kick
- wall lizard
- wall newspaper
- wall of death
- wall of shame
- wall of silence
- wall of sound
- wall of text
- wall-painting
- wallpaper
- wall-pecker
- wall plate
- wall plug
- wall railing
- wall ride
- wall rocket
- wall-rocket
- wall screw-moss
- Wallsend
- wall-shade
- walls have ears
- wall-sided
- wall sit
- wall socket
- wall spring
- wall time
- wall-to-wall
- wall tower
- wall unit
- wall walk
- wall wart
- warped wall
- writing on the wall
Translations
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Verb
wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)
- To enclose with, or as if with, a wall or walls.
- He walled the study with books.
Derived terms
- wall in
- wall off
- wall up
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English wallen, from Old English weallan (“to bubble, boil”), from Proto-Germanic *wallaną (“to fount, stream, boil”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“wave”). Cognate with Middle Dutch wallen (“to boil, bubble”), Dutch wellen (“to weld”), German wellen (“to wave, warp”), Danish vælde (“to overwhelm”), Swedish välla (“to gush, weld”). See also well.
Verb
wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)
- To boil.
- To well, as water; spring.
Related terms
- well
- overwhelm
Etymology 3
From Middle English walle, from Old English *wealla, *weall (“spring”), from Proto-Germanic *wallô, *wallaz (“well, spring”). See above. Cognate with Old Frisian walla (“spring”), Old English wiell (“well”).
Noun
wall (plural walls)
- (chiefly dialectal) A spring of water.
Etymology 4
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
wall (plural walls)
- (nautical) A kind of knot often used at the end of a rope; a wall knot or wale.
Verb
wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)
- (transitive, nautical) To make a wall knot on the end of (a rope).
Interjection
wall
- (US) Pronunciation spelling of well.
- 1858, The New Priest in Conception Bay by Robert Lowell
- Wall, they spoke up, 'n' says to her, s'd they, "Why, look a-here, aunty, Wus't his skin, 't was rock?" so s's she, "I guess not." (Well, they spoke up and says to her, said they, "Why look a-here, aunty, was it his skin that was rock [referring to the Apostle Peter]?" So says she, "I guess not.")
- 1988, Herbert M. Sutherland, Tall Tales of the Devil's Apron, The Overmountain Press, →ISBN, page 97:
- Wall, be that as it may, ol' Hosshead was a purty good citizen in his day, an' he shore did make Juneybell toe the mark.
- 1858, The New Priest in Conception Bay by Robert Lowell
Anagrams
- lawl
German
Pronunciation
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -al
Verb
wall
- singular imperative of wallen
- (colloquial) first-person singular present of wallen
Middle English
Noun
wall
- Alternative form of wale (“selection, preference”)
Adjective
wall
- Alternative form of wale
Scots
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /wɑl/, /wal/
Noun
wall (plural walls)
- A well. (clarification of this definition is needed)