wall
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /wɔːl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /wɔl/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /wɑl/
- 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
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:
- […] 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: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 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
- Something with the apparent solidity, opacity, or dimensions of a building wall.
- a wall of sound; a wall of water; a wall of smoke obscured their view of enemy forces
- (figurative) A means of defence or security.
- I built a wall between myself and the bullies.
- One of the vertical sides of a container.
- 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 60:
- The extraordinary thinness of the walls of these vases, which reminds us of the finest china, or even of Venetian glass
- (anatomy, zoology, botany) A dividing or containing structure in an organ or cavity.
- Synonym: paries
- 1982 April 24, Matthew Ross, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 15:
- There is definitely some sort of lump on the back wall of my throat (right side).
- 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, pages 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.
- 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.
- (mining) Any of the surfaces of rock enclosing the lode.
- (Internet) A personal notice board listing messages of interest to a particular user.
- (roleplaying 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; said to be taken or given.
- 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson:
- He related to me the following minute anecdote of this period: 'In the last age, when my mother lived in London, there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall, and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome. […] Now it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it; and it is never a dispute.'
- 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).
- (cycling) A very steep slope.
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
- airwall
- Apartheid Wall
- back against the wall
- backs to the wall
- back to the wall
- back wall
- balls to the 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
- cobwall
- cookie wall
- cosmic wall
- crosswall
- curtainwall
- curtain wall
- dead wall
- diaphragm wall
- domain wall
- DonoWall
- drive someone to the wall
- drive someone up the wall
- dry stone wall
- drywall
- dry wall
- dwarf wall
- enwall
- ethical wall
- eyewall
- fall of the wall
- feature wall
- fifth wall
- firewall
- floodwall
- flower wall
- fly on the wall
- footwall
- force someone's back to the wall
- forewall
- forwall
- fourth-wall
- fourth wall
- fourth-wall joke
- fourth wall joke
- four-wall
- front wall
- fruit wall
- get the wall
- go to the wall
- Great Wall of China
- green wall
- groundwall
- Hadrian's Wall
- handwriting on the wall
- hanging wall
- hardwall
- harsh noise wall
- head wall
- headwall
- Heddon-on-the-Wall
- highwall
- hit a brick wall
- hit a wall
- hit the wall
- hole-in-the-wall
- hot wall
- house-wall
- house wall
- interwall
- inwall
- 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 speaking to a wall
- like talking to a brick wall
- like talking to a wall
- living wall
- login wall
- longwall
- midwall
- mudwall
- multiwall
- nail Jell-O to a wall
- nail someone to the wall
- nanowall
- Néel wall
- office wall
- office-wall
- off-the-wall
- off the wall
- outwall
- paper wall
- paperwall
- party wall
- passwall
- paywall
- peace wall
- pellitory of the wall
- pick bids off the wall
- piss money up the wall
- piss something up the wall
- pitwall
- pony wall
- potwaller
- power wall
- primary cell wall
- pushwall
- rat wall
- red wall
- registration wall
- retaining wall
- rewall
- Rockwall
- rope wall
- run into a brick wall
- screen wall
- seawall
- sea wall
- secondary cell wall
- shear wall
- shearwall
- shield wall
- shortwall
- sidewall
- side wall
- softwall
- sound wall
- Spanish wall
- spite wall
- stakewall
- stare at the wall
- Stonewall
- stone-wall
- stonewall, stone wall
- storagewall
- streetwall
- talk to a brick wall
- text wall
- the apples on the other side of the wall are the sweetest
- the handwriting is on the wall
- 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
- training wall
- tribute wall
- Trombe wall
- tsunami wall
- unwall
- up against the wall
- up the wall
- up the walls
- wag-at-the-wall
- wag-on-the-wall
- wall angel
- wallball
- wall barley
- wall bars
- wallbird
- wallboard
- wallbox
- wall brown
- wall charger
- wall chart
- wallchart
- wall chaser
- wall clock
- wall cloud
- wallcovering
- wall covering
- wallcrawl
- wallcrawler
- wall crawler
- wall-crawler
- wallcrawling
- wallcreeper
- wallcrossing
- wall energy
- waller
- wallette
- wall-eyed
- wall fan
- wallfish
- wall flower
- wallflower
- wall-flower
- wallful
- wall game
- wall gun
- wallhack
- wallhacker
- wallhacking
- wall hanger
- wallhanging
- wall hanging
- wall humping
- wall jump
- wall kick
- wallless
- walllike
- wall lizard
- wall-mounted
- wall newspaper
- wall of death
- wall of shame
- wall of silence
- wall of sound
- wall of text
- wall-painting
- wall paper
- wallpaper
- wall-pecker
- wallpepper
- wall piece
- wall plate
- wall plug
- wallpress
- wall railing
- wall ride
- wall-rocket
- wall rocket
- wallscape
- wallscreen
- wall screw-moss
- Wallsend
- wall-shade
- walls have ears
- wallside
- wall-sided
- wall sit
- wall socket
- wall spring
- Wall Street
- wall time
- walltop
- wall-to-wall
- wall tower
- wall unit
- wallure
- wall walk
- wallward
- wallwards
- wall wart
- warped wall
- waterwall
- whitewall
- wing wall
- writing on the wall
Translations
defensive rampart
| ||||||||
structure built for defense surrounding an area
| ||||||||
substantial structure acting as side or division in a building
| |||||||
impediment to free movement
|
butterfly Lasiommata megera
|
barrier
something with the apparent solidity and dimensions of a building wall
anatomy, zoology, botany: divisive or containing structure
|
fictional bidder at an auction
|
soccer: line of defenders
internet: personal notice board
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
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.
- (video games, slang) To use a wallhack.
- (video games, slang, transitive) To wallbang.
- I walled her. She's low [health].
Derived terms
Terms derived from the noun or verb wall
Translations
to enclose by surrounding with walls
|
Etymology 2
From Middle English wallen, from Old English weallan (“to bubble, boil”), from Proto-West Germanic *wallan, 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)
Related terms
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)
Etymology 4
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
wall (plural walls)
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).
Etymology 5
Interjection
wall
- (US) Pronunciation spelling of well.
- 1858, Robert Lowell, The New Priest in Conception Bay:
- 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.
Anagrams
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle High German wal(e), from Old High German wala. Cognate with Middle Dutch wale, whence Limburgish waal. Also cognate with the German, Dutch and English words below, though these have a different vocalism.
Pronunciation
Adverb
wall (Ripuarian, parts of northern Moselle Franconian)
Pronunciation
Verb
wall
Noun
wall
- Alternative form of wale (“selection, preference”)
Adjective
wall
- Alternative form of wale
Noun
wall m
- Alternative form of weall
Etymology
From Old English well, wella
Pronunciation
Noun
wall (plural walls)
- A well. (clarification of this definition is needed)
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