Library / English Dictionary

WALL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An embankment built around a space for defensive purposes

Example:

they blew the trumpet and the walls came tumbling down

Synonyms:

bulwark; rampart; wall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

embankment (a long artificial mound of stone or earth; built to hold back water or to support a road or as protection)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wall"):

bailey (the outer defensive wall that surrounds the outer courtyard of a castle)

battlement; crenelation; crenellation (a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns)

earthwork (an earthen rampart)

fraise (sloping or horizontal rampart of pointed stakes)

merlon (a solid section between two crenels in a crenelated battlement)

Instance hyponyms:

Antonine Wall (a fortification 37 miles long across the narrowest part of southern Scotland (between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde); built in 140 to mark the frontier of the Roman province of Britain)

Chinese Wall; Great Wall; Great Wall of China (a fortification 1,500 miles long built across northern China in the 3rd century BC; it averages 6 meters in width)

Holonyms ("wall" is a part of...):

fortification; munition (defensive structure consisting of walls or mounds built around a stronghold to strengthen it)

Derivation:

wall (surround with a wall in order to fortify)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure

Example:

the walls were covered with pictures

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

divider; partition (a vertical structure that divides or separates (as a wall divides one room from another))

Meronyms (parts of "wall"):

wall panel (paneling that forms part of a wall)

dado; wainscot (panel forming the lower part of an interior wall when it is finished differently from the rest of the wall)

pier ((architecture) a vertical supporting structure (as a portion of wall between two doors or windows))

pane; paneling; panelling (a panel or section of panels in a wall or door)

cope; coping; header (brick that is laid sideways at the top of a wall)

door; doorway; room access; threshold (the entrance (the space in a wall) through which you enter or leave a room or building; the space that a door can close)

course; row ((construction) a layer of masonry)

capstone; copestone; coping stone; stretcher (a stone that forms the top of wall or building)

arch; archway (a passageway under a curved masonry construction)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wall"):

sidewall (a wall that forms the side of a structure)

wainscoting; wainscotting (a wainscoted wall (or wainscoted walls collectively))

proscenium; proscenium wall (the wall that separates the stage from the auditorium in a modern theater)

parapet (a low wall along the edge of a roof or balcony)

gable; gable end; gable wall (the vertical triangular wall between the sloping ends of gable roof)

firewall (a fireproof (or fire-resistant) wall designed to prevent the spread of fire through a building or a vehicle)

chimney breast (walls that project out from the wall of a room and surround the chimney base)

cavity wall (a wall formed of two thicknesses of masonry with a space between them)

bearing wall (any wall supporting a floor or the roof of a building)

attic ((architecture) a low wall at the top of the entablature; hides the roof)

Instance hyponyms:

Wailing Wall (a wall in Jerusalem; sacred to Jews as a place of prayer and lamentation; its stones are believed to have formed part of the Temple of Solomon)

Hadrian's Wall (an ancient Roman wall built by Hadrian in the 2nd century; marked the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain)

Holonyms ("wall" is a part of...):

room (an area within a building enclosed by walls and floor and ceiling)

hall; hallway (an interior passage or corridor onto which rooms open)

building; edifice (a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place)

Derivation:

wall (surround with a wall in order to fortify)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A masonry fence (as around an estate or garden)

Example:

he ducked behind the garden wall and waited

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

fence; fencing (a barrier that serves to enclose an area)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wall"):

party wall (a wall erected on the line between two properties and shared by both owners)

retaining wall (a wall that is built to resist lateral pressure (especially a wall built to prevent the advance of a mass of earth))

Derivation:

wall (surround with a wall in order to fortify)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A layer of material that encloses space

Example:

the container's walls were blue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

bed; layer (single thickness of usually some homogeneous substance)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(anatomy) a layer (a lining or membrane) that encloses a structure

Example:

stomach walls

Synonyms:

paries; wall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

stratum (one of several parallel layers of material arranged one on top of another (such as a layer of tissue or cells in an organism or a layer of sedimentary rock))

Domain category:

anatomy; general anatomy (the branch of morphology that deals with the structure of animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wall"):

abdominal wall (a wall of the abdomen)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Anything that suggests a wall in structure or function or effect

Example:

negotiations ran into a brick wall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wall"):

footwall (the lower wall of an inclined fault)

hanging wall (the upper wall of an inclined fault)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A vertical (or almost vertical) smooth rock face (as of a cave or mountain)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

formation; geological formation ((geology) the geological features of the earth)

Holonyms ("wall" is a part of...):

cave (a geological formation consisting of an underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea)

Sense 8

Meaning:

A difficult or awkward situation

Example:

competition was pushing them to the wall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("wall" is a kind of...):

difficulty (a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Surround with a wall in order to fortify

Synonyms:

fence; fence in; palisade; surround; wall

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "wall" is one way to...):

protect (shield from danger, injury, destruction, or damage)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wall"):

stockade (surround with a stockade in order to fortify)

circumvallate (surround with or as if with a rampart or other fortification)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Also:

wall in; wall up (enclose with a wall)

Derivation:

wall (an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes)

wall (an architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure)

wall (a masonry fence (as around an estate or garden))

Credits

 Context examples: 

'E's been a-gettin' over some bloomin' wall or other.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She joined them at the wall, and found them more engaged in talking than in looking around.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“What part of the wall?” cried a voice from behind us.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It could not have fallen from above, for these, as you see, are all blank walls.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have asked myself if the best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high walls as though it were some savage creature.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I see walls of great promise.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Not a stone must be added to its walls, not an inch to its size, if my feelings are regarded."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It is enclosed by a wall of two feet high, and twenty feet distance from the buildings.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Hans staggered back against the wall, where he leaned, his face working, in his throat the deep and continuous rumble that died away with the seconds and at last ceased.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The walls were carefully sounded, and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was also thoroughly examined, with the same result.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)