Wall Definition

wôl
walled, walls
noun
walls
An upright structure of wood, stone, brick, etc., serving to enclose, divide, support, or protect.
Webster's New World
A continuous structure of masonry or other material forming a rampart and built for defensive purposes.
American Heritage
Something resembling a wall in appearance or function, as the side or inside surface of a container or body cavity.
Webster's New World
A structure of stonework, cement, or other material built to retain a flow of water.
American Heritage
Something suggestive of a wall in that it holds back, divides, hides, etc.
A wall of secrecy.
Webster's New World
verb
walled, walls
To furnish, line, enclose, divide, protect, etc. with or as with a wall or walls.
To wall a room with books, to wall off the old wing, a mind walled in by fears.
Webster's New World
To divide or separate with or as if with a wall. Often used with off:
Wall off half a room.
American Heritage
To confine or seal behind a wall; immure.
American Heritage
To close up (an opening) with a wall.
Webster's New World

To boil.

Wiktionary
adjective
Of or along a wall.
Webster's New World
Placed or growing on, in, or against a wall.
Webster's New World
idiom
off the wall
  • Extremely unconventional.
  • Without foundation; ridiculous:

    an accusation that is really off the wall.

American Heritage
up the wall
  • Into a state of extreme frustration, anger, or distress:

    tensions that are driving me up the wall.

American Heritage
writing
  • An ominous indication of the course of future events:

    saw the writing on the wall and fled the country.

American Heritage
drive to the wall
  • to place in a desperate or extreme position
Webster's New World
drive up the wall
  • to make frantic, emotionally tense, crazy, etc.
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Wall

Noun

Singular:
wall
Plural:
walls

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Wall

Origin of Wall

  • From Middle English wall, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, earthwork, rampart, dam, rocky shore, cliff"), from Proto-Germanic *wallaz, *wallÄ… (“wall, rampart, entrenchment"), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, entrenchment, palisade"), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, wind, roll"). Cognate with North Frisian wal (“wall"), Dutch wal (“wall, rampart, embankment"), German Wall (“rampart, mound, embankment"), Swedish vall (“mound, wall, bank"). More at wallow, walk.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English wallen, from Old English weallian (“to bubble, boil"), from Proto-Germanic *wallōnÄ…, *wellōnÄ… (“to fount, stream, boil"), from Proto-Indo-European *welǝn-, *welǝm- (“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.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old English weall from Latin vallum palisade from vallus stake Idiom, in reference to an incident in the Bible (Daniel 5) in which a hand writes mysterious words on the wall of Belshazzar's banquet hall and the prophet Daniel interprets them as predicting the king's downfall

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Middle English walle, from Old English *weall (“spring"), from Proto-Germanic *wallô, *wallaz (“well, spring"). See above. Cognate with Old Frisian walla (“spring"), Old English wiell (“well").

    From Wiktionary

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