# wall

Pronunciation: say "WAWL" US /wɔl/, UK /wɔːl/

## Noun

1. A solid upright structure forming the outside of a building or dividing its interior into rooms.
   - Simple: A solid side of a building or room, going from floor to ceiling.
   - _Workers knocked down an interior wall to combine the two rooms._
   - _The walls of the old farmhouse were nearly a foot thick._
2. A structure or obstacle that blocks passage or separates one area from another.
   - Simple: Something that blocks the way or keeps two areas apart.
   - _The dense thicket served as a natural wall that kept the livestock penned in._
   - _Officers linked arms to make a wall holding the crowd back from the stage._
3. A substantial barrier of stone, earth, or similar material built around a city, castle, fort, or other position to defend it from attack.
   - Simple: A thick, strong wall of stone or earth built around a town, castle, or fort to protect it from attack.
   - _Medieval builders raised a thick stone wall around the entire town._
   - _Sections of the ancient wall still surround the old quarter._
4. The side or enclosing outer layer of a hollow thing, such as a container, a body organ or cavity, or a cell.
   - Simple: The side or outer layer around the inside of something hollow, like a box, a body part, or a cell.
   - _The surgeon repaired a small tear in the wall of the artery._
   - _Inflammation had thickened the wall of the intestine._
6. Something that appears as solid, opaque, or large as the side of a building.
   - Simple: Something so thick, tall, or solid that it seems like a building's side.
   - _The band produced a wall of sound that filled the entire arena._
   - _A wall of flame swept across the dry hillside within minutes._
7. A point at which one feels unable to continue, overcome by exhaustion or despair.
   - Simple: The moment when you feel you cannot go on anymore.
   - _The exhausted climbers hit a wall and could go no farther up the ridge._
   - _By the third all-nighter, the student had clearly hit a wall._
8. An online space on a user's profile where messages and posts addressed to them are displayed.
   - Simple: A page on a social website where messages for one person show up.
   - _He thanked everyone who had left greetings on his wall._
   - _Older posts now linger near the bottom of her wall._
9. A line of defending players positioned between a free-kick taker and the goal to block the shot.
   - Simple: A row of players who stand together to block a free kick.
   - _The keeper organized a four-man wall before the free kick._
   - _She bent the ball around the wall to score from the edge of the box._
10. A very steep section of road or hillside, especially one that riders struggle to climb.
   - Simple: A very steep part of a hill that is hard to ride up.
   - _The race exploded on the cobbled wall near the finish._
   - _Only a handful of riders held their pace on the brutal wall._
11. A point of final defeat, ruin, or extinction.
   - Simple: The point where someone is completely beaten or ruined.
   - _Several family firms went to the wall during the long recession._
   - _After three years of losses, the family restaurant finally went to the wall, and the building now sits empty._
12. The stage of aging at which physical appearance and attractiveness begin to decline rapidly. *(slang)*
   - Simple: The point in life when a person's looks and appeal begin to fade quickly.
   - _The magazine ran a piece claiming celebrities hit the wall earlier than ordinary people._
   - _She was tired of hearing that women hit the wall at thirty and lose their looks almost overnight._
13. Any of the rock surfaces that enclose a mineral vein, or lode.
   - Simple: In mining, the rock surface on either side of a vein of ore.
   - _Geologists examined the wall enclosing the copper lode for signs of fracturing._
   - _The vein's walls were rich with quartz._

## Verb

5. To surround or close off something with a wall, or as though with one.
   - Simple: To close something off by putting a wall around it.
   - _The monks chose to wall their orchard against the bitter wind._
   - _Engineers walled the reservoir with thick reinforced concrete._

## Verb

14. To boil, as a heated liquid bubbles up. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To boil, or to bubble up the way hot water does.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Two or more blockers skating together to block and slow the opposing team.
- (noun) A character with high defenses that greatly reduces the damage taken from an opponent's attacks.
- (noun) A fictitious bidder used at an auction to drive up the price.
- (noun) A doctor who works to admit as few patients to the hospital as possible.
- (noun) The stacked rows of face-down tiles that players draw from during a game of mahjong.
- (verb) To cheat in a video game by using a wallhack, a program that reveals enemies hidden behind walls.
- (verb) To shoot and hit an opponent through a wall or other solid surface in a video game.
- (noun) The right or privilege of taking the side of a street nearest the wall when passing another pedestrian, said to be given or taken.
- (noun) A type of knot, also called a wall knot or wale, tied at the end of a rope.
- (verb) To finish the end of a rope by working a wall knot into it.
- (noun) An orange-brown butterfly, Lasiommata megera, known for basking on walls and bare ground in the sun.
- (noun) A spring of water; a place where water rises naturally from the ground.
- (verb) Of water, to rise up and flow out from the ground.
- (interjection) A spelling of the exclamation "well" that shows a regional way of saying it.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–13** — From Middle English wal, from Old English weall ("wall, rampart, dike, cliff"), from Proto-West Germanic *wall, from Latin vallum ("wall, rampart, palisade"), possibly going back to Proto-Indo-European *welH- ("to turn, wind, roll"). It may have been conflated with an older word for an interior wall or room partition. It is related to Dutch wal and German Wall.
**Meaning 14** — Proto-Indo-European *welH- ("wave") led to Proto-Germanic *wallaną ("to fount, stream, boil") and Proto-West Germanic *wallan. Old English had weallan ("to bubble, boil"), which became Middle English wallen. Related words include Middle Dutch wallen ("to boil") and German wellen ("to wave").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/wall (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).