wall
Americannoun
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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.
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Usually walls. a rampart raised for defensive purposes.
- Synonyms:
- bastion, barrier, bulwark, breastwork, battlement
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an immaterial or intangible barrier, obstruction, etc., suggesting a wall.
a wall of prejudice.
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a wall-like, enclosing part, thing, mass, etc..
a wall of fire;
a wall of troops.
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an embankment to prevent flooding, as a levee or sea wall.
- Synonyms:
- dike
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the outermost film or layer of structural material protecting, surrounding, and defining the physical limits of an object.
the wall of a blood cell.
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Soccer. a line of defenders standing shoulder to shoulder in an attempt to block a free kick with their bodies.
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Mining.
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the side of a level or drift.
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the overhanging or underlying side of a vein; a hanging wall or footwall.
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adjective
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of or relating to a wall.
wall space.
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growing against or on a wall.
wall plants;
wall cress.
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situated, placed, or installed in or on a wall.
wall oven;
a wall safe.
verb (used with object)
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to enclose, shut off, divide, protect, border, etc., with or as if with a wall (often followed by in oroff ).
to wall the yard; to wall in the play area;
He is walled in by lack of opportunity.
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to seal or fill (a doorway or other opening) with a wall.
to wall an unused entrance.
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to seal or entomb (something or someone) within a wall (usually followed byup ).
The workmen had walled up the cat quite by mistake.
- Synonyms:
- immure
idioms
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climb (the) walls, to become tense or frantic.
climbing the walls with boredom.
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up the wall, into an acutely frantic, frustrated, or irritated state.
The constant tension in the office is driving everyone up the wall.
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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.
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off the wall,
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beyond the realm of acceptability or reasonableness.
The figure you quoted for doing the work is off the wall.
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markedly out of the ordinary; eccentric; bizarre.
Some of the clothes in the fashion show were too off the wall for the average customer.
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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.
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go to the wall,
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to be defeated in a conflict or competition; yield.
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to fail in business, especially to become bankrupt.
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to be put aside or forgotten.
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to take an extreme and determined position or measure.
I'd go to the wall to stop him from resigning.
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go over the wall, to break out of prison.
Roadblocks have been set up in an effort to capture several convicts who went over the wall.
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up against the wall,
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placed against a wall to be executed by a firing squad.
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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.
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noun
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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
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( as modifier )
wall hangings
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(often plural) a structure or rampart built to protect and surround a position or place for defensive purposes
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Technical name: paries. anatomy any lining, membrane, or investing part that encloses or bounds a bodily cavity or structure
abdominal wall
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mountaineering a vertical or almost vertical smooth rock face
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anything that suggests a wall in function or effect
a wall of fire
a wall of prejudice
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to try to achieve something impossible
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to force into an awkward situation
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to be ruined; collapse financially
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slang to cause to become crazy or furious
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slang to become crazy or furious
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to be in a very difficult situation
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See off-the-wall
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See wall-to-wall
verb
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to protect, provide, or confine with or as if with a wall
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(often foll by up) to block (an opening) with a wall
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to seal by or within a wall or walls
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wallsimple
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wallssimple
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have walledperfect
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has walledperfect
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am wallingprogressive
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are wallingprogressive
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is wallingprogressive
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have been wallingperfect progressive
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has been wallingperfect progressive
Past
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walledsimple
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had walledperfect
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was wallingprogressive
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were wallingprogressive
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had been wallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wall
First recorded before 900; (for the noun) Middle English; Old English w(e)all, from Latin vallum “palisade,” derivative of vallus “stake, post”; see wale 1; verb derivative of the noun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Four walls enclose the courts, including a 15-foot-tall front wall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The vehicle, with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag affixed to its top, then smashes through the tyre-and-barricade wall, leaping into the air and speeding on.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Those people have floated adding a registration wall that requires humans to log in to view content, according to people familiar with the matter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
That level of period detail extends to Bradbury & Bradbury wallpaper, ball-trim swag valances and wall air vents laser-cut in Moorish patterns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
I’m closing in on the wall, ten meters to go, and when my hands slam into it and Coach jumps up, thrusting his fist in the air, I know I’ve done it.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
The sport’s rectangular courts are 66-feet long by 33-feet wide, divided by a net and surrounded by four walls made of glass panels and mesh.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Designed by acclaimed architecture firm Olson Kundig, the 2,900-square-foot residence features two bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, floor-to-ceiling glass walls, and a spacious terrace overlooking the Hollywood Hills.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
The roughcast yellow walls of the 17th-century home near the German border, where the future Fuehrer was born on April 20, 1889, have been whitewashed over by the Austrian architecture firm Marte.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
His covert operation to sneak within the city walls was a betrayal of bedrock beliefs about honor and civility, a shameful act that brought humanity into a darker age.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
I press on as the walls around me begin to spin.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
"A walled garden is only a refuge if the people inside chose the wall, can see over it, and may leave when they wish."
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
The source of funding should be clear, obvious and walled off.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
The dig revealed a walled complex that had remained largely undisturbed since Roman times.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 5, 2026
Beyond security concerns, authoritarian leaders often house senior officials on military bases or within walled compounds as a way of minimizing the possibility of a coup.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
The houses on this road were crowded together and shared common walls, with small, walled yards in front buffering them from the street.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
With reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pacing the offensive attack and an airtight defense walling off the rim on the other end, the Thunder have put up a mind-blowing +16.0 net rating, entering Wednesday’s game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
America has prospered for centuries not by walling itself off but by attracting people who bring energy, ideas, and investment.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2025
To make ends meet, Matthew already has to spend time away from the farm doing freelance dry stone walling work, and Liz runs a full-time business, with another part-time job to keep the family afloat.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2024
Work crews followed them in, razing trees and greenery and walling off the space by double-stacking heavy metal cargo containers around the entire park perimeter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
The Poor Fellows went before them, forcing men aside with their shields, walling off a narrow path.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.