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wall
[ wawl ]
noun
- any of various permanent upright constructions having a length much greater than the thickness and presenting a continuous surface except where pierced by doors, windows, etc.: used for shelter, protection, or privacy, or to subdivide interior space, to support floors, roofs, or the like, to retain earth, to fence in an area, etc.
- Usually walls. a rampart raised for defensive purposes.
Synonyms: , , , ,
- an immaterial or intangible barrier, obstruction, etc., suggesting a wall:
a wall of prejudice.
- a wall-like, enclosing part, thing, mass, etc.:
a wall of fire;
a wall of troops.
- an embankment to prevent flooding, as a levee or sea wall.
Synonyms:
- the outermost film or layer of structural material protecting, surrounding, and defining the physical limits of an object:
the wall of a blood cell.
- Soccer. a line of defenders standing shoulder to shoulder in an attempt to block a free kick with their bodies.
- Mining.
- the side of a level or drift.
- the overhanging or underlying side of a vein; a hanging wall or footwall.
adjective
- of or relating to a wall:
wall space.
- growing against or on a wall:
wall plants;
wall cress.
- situated, placed, or installed in or on a wall:
wall oven;
a wall safe.
verb (used with object)
- to enclose, shut off, divide, protect, border, etc., with or as if with a wall (often followed by in or off ):
to wall the yard; to wall in the play area;
He is walled in by lack of opportunity.
- to seal or fill (a doorway or other opening) with a wall:
to wall an unused entrance.
- to seal or entomb (something or someone) within a wall (usually followed by up ):
The workmen had walled up the cat quite by mistake.
Synonyms:
wall
/ ɔː /
noun
- a vertical construction made of stone, brick, wood, etc, with a length and height much greater than its thickness, used to enclose, divide, or support
- ( as modifier ) mural
wall hangings
- often plural a structure or rampart built to protect and surround a position or place for defensive purposes
- anatomy any lining, membrane, or investing part that encloses or bounds a bodily cavity or structure Technical nameparies parietal
abdominal wall
- mountaineering a vertical or almost vertical smooth rock face
- anything that suggests a wall in function or effect
a wall of fire
a wall of prejudice
- bang one's head against a brick wallto try to achieve something impossible
- drive to the wall or push to the wallto force into an awkward situation
- go to the wallto be ruined; collapse financially
- drive up the wall slang.to cause to become crazy or furious
- go up the wall slang.to become crazy or furious
- have one's back to the wallto be in a very difficult situation
- See off-the-wall
- See wall-to-wall
verb
- to protect, provide, or confine with or as if with a wall
- often foll by up to block (an opening) with a wall
- often foll byin or up to seal by or within a wall or walls
Derived Forms
- ˈɲ-, adjective
- ˈɲ-ˌ, adjective
- walled, adjective
Other Word Forms
- ɲ- adjective
- ɲ- adjective
- ܲ·ɲ verb (used with object)
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of wall1
Idioms and Phrases
- climb (the) walls, Slang. to become tense or frantic:
climbing the walls with boredom.
- drive / push to the wall, to force into a desperate situation; humiliate or ruin completely:
Not content with merely winning the match, they used every opportunity to push the inferior team to the wall.
- go over the wall, Slang. to break out of prison:
Roadblocks have been set up in an effort to capture several convicts who went over the wall.
- go to the wall,
- to be defeated in a conflict or competition; yield.
- to fail in business, especially to become bankrupt.
- to be put aside or forgotten.
- to take an extreme and determined position or measure:
I'd go to the wall to stop him from resigning.
- hit the wall, (of long-distance runners) to reach a point in a race, usually after 20 miles, when the body's fuels are virtually depleted and willpower becomes crucial to be able to finish.
- off the wall, Slang.
- beyond the realm of acceptability or reasonableness:
The figure you quoted for doing the work is off the wall.
- markedly out of the ordinary; eccentric; bizarre:
Some of the clothes in the fashion show were too off the wall for the average customer.
- up against the wall,
- placed against a wall to be executed by a firing squad.
- in a crucial or critical position, especially one in which defeat or failure seems imminent:
Unless sales improve next month, the company will be up against the wall.
- up the wall, Slang. into an acutely frantic, frustrated, or irritated state:
The constant tension in the office is driving everyone up the wall.
More idioms and phrases containing wall
- back to the wall
- beat one's head against the wall
- between you and me and the lamppost (four walls)
- climb the walls
- drive someone crazy (up the wall)
- fly on the wall
- go to the wall
- handwriting on the wall
- hole in the wall
- off the wall
- run into a stone wall
Example Sentences
The wardrobe fills out the one blank wall I had left in the bedroom.
I’m like, “That whole wall is the screen.”
Males choose conspicuous basking locations — a rock, stucco wall or, well, a fence — to woo females and proclaim ownership of a territory.
After a previous conflict in Gaza in 2009, a UN survey of the territory found asbestos in debris from older buildings, sheds, temporary building extensions, roofs and the walls of livestock enclosures.
I love is that he breaks the fourth wall and it’s like, “I’m not real. OK? I’m not real. So, it’s you. It actually can’t be me because I don’t exist.”
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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