mall

Pluralmalls

Formsmalls, malling, malled

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A large enclosed building containing many shops, restaurants, and walkways under one roof.

   The mall fills with shoppers every weekend before the holidays.

   Several malls in the region closed after online shopping took hold.

   Note

   A building people visit for company as much as for shopping. Ralph E. Warner's Get a Life (2004) describes retirees gathering at enclosed malls each morning, and Taylor Swift's "August" (2020) makes the back of the mall a meeting point. Where the open pedestrian street could also be meant, the phrase "enclosed shopping mall" removes the doubt.

2. 2
   nounAustraliaCanadaNew ZealandUScountable

   A street closed to traffic and given over to pedestrians, especially one lined with shops; a shopping precinct.

   The city converted four downtown blocks into a brick-paved mall lined with cafes and boutiques.

   Cars are banned from the mall, leaving the whole street to pedestrians and street performers.

   Similarprecinct, plaza, promenade

   Note

   The open-air street behind the word's modern career, chiefly at home in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The name probably comes from The Mall in London, once an alley for the game of pall mall. Alexander Garvin's The American City (2002) dates America's first pedestrianized mall to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1959, built to revive a decaying downtown. To keep it apart from the enclosed shopping center, say "pedestrian mall."

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A level, shaded public walk or promenade where people stroll for pleasure.

   Couples strolled along the shaded mall as the band played in the distance.

   The park's central mall offered a cool, level path beneath rows of old elms.

   Similarpromenade, walk, esplanade

   Note

   The promenade often carries the word as part of a place name. Robert Southey's The Life of Wesley (1820) describes gravel walks laid out and planted with elms that "obtained the name of the City Mall." Level ground and shade are what qualify a walk for the name; the word suits a laid-out path rather than a casual track.

4. 4
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To go shopping at a mall, especially as a leisure activity.

   They spent the day malling, drifting from store to store with no real plan.

   On rainy Saturdays the whole family would mall until closing time.

   Similarshop, browse

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To develop an area by building shopping malls across it.

   Critics worry that planners will mall every open space near the highway.

   The suburb was rapidly malled during the 1980s building boom.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A heavy wooden mallet or hammer used to strike the ball in the game of pall mall.

   She lifted the mall over her shoulder and drove the ball down the alley.

   Each player carried a long-handled mall carved from solid wood.

   Similarmallet

   Note

   The tool of the game rather than its ground, and heavy enough to do harm: in James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), a man rises in wrath and strikes the narrator with the mall in his hand until the blood flows. That weight is the link to the verb meaning "to beat".

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To strike something with a mallet or other heavy object; to beat or bruise it.

   He malled the old door until the rusted lock finally gave way.

   Workers mall the metal flat before shaping it into panels.

   Similarhammer, pound, beat, batter, maul

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