wall

A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.

Interjection

  1. Pronunciation spelling of well.
    • 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...
    • 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. - 1988, Herbert M. Sutherland, Tall Tales of the Devil's Apron, The Overmountain Press, →ISBN,...

Noun Entry 2

  1. A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.
  2. A structure built for defense surrounding a city, castle etc.
    • The town wall was surrounded by a moat.
    • 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...
  3. 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.
    • […] 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...
    • 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. - 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in...
  4. A point of desperation.
  5. A point of defeat or extinction.
    • 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. - March 11 2022, David...
  6. An impediment to free movement.
    • A wall of police officers met the protesters before they reached the capitol steps.
  7. The butterfly Lasiommata megera.
    • 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. - 2015 November 24,...

    Synonyms: wall brown

  8. A barrier.
    • a seawall; a firewall
  9. 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
  10. A means of defence or security.
    • I built a wall between myself and the bullies.
  11. One of the vertical sides of a container.
    • The extraordinary thinness of the walls of these vases, which reminds us of the finest china, or even of Venetian glass - 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 60:
  12. A dividing or containing structure in an organ or cavity.
    • There is definitely some sort of lump on the back wall of my throat (right side). - 1982 April 24, Matthew Ross, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 15:
    • 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. - 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of...

    Synonyms: paries

Origin

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.

Forms

walls

Synonyms

rampart chandelier profile

Derived

abdominal wall accent wall adiabatic wall airwall anterior wall 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 basal wall beat one's head against a stone wall Berlin Wall big wall Bloch wall block wall blue wall blue wall of silence body wall bounce off the walls break the fourth wall

Noun dialectal

  1. A spring of water.

Origin

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”).

Forms

walls

Noun nautical, transport

  1. A kind of knot often used at the end of a rope; a wall knot or wale.

Forms

walls

Verb Entry 5

  1. To enclose with, or as if with, a wall or walls.
    • He walled the study with books.
  2. To use a wallhack.
  3. To wallbang.
    • I walled her. She's low [health].

Forms

walls walling walled

Derived

wall in wall off wall up

Verb Entry 6

  1. To boil.
  2. To well, as water; spring.

Origin

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.

Forms

walls walling walled

Related

well overwhelm

Verb nautical, transport

  1. To make a wall knot on the end of (a rope).

Forms

walls walling walled