wall

English Online Dictionary. What means wall‎? What does wall mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɔːl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɔl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /wɑl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːl

Etymology 1

From Middle English wal, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, earthwork, rampart, dam, rocky shore, cliff”), from Proto-West Germanic *wall (“wall, rampart, entrenchment”), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, entrenchment, palisade”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”).

Perhaps conflated with waw (“a wall within a house or dwelling, a room partition”), from Middle English wawe, from Old English wāg, wāh (“an interior wall, divider”), see waw.

Cognate with North Frisian wal (“wall”), Saterland Frisian Waal (“wall, rampart, mound”), Dutch wal (“wall, rampart, embankment”), German Wall (“rampart, mound, embankment”), Swedish vall (“mound, wall, bank”). More at wallow, walk.

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.
2. A structure built for defense surrounding a city, castle etc.
3. Each of the substantial structures acting either as the exterior of or divisions within a structure.
4. A point of desperation.
5. A point of defeat or extinction.
6. An impediment to free movement.

7. The butterfly Lasiommata megera.

   Synonym: wall brown
8. (often in combination) A barrier.

9. Something with the apparent solidity, opacity, or dimensions of a building wall.

10. (figurative) A means of defence or security.

11. One of the vertical sides of a container.
12. (anatomy, zoology, botany) A dividing or containing structure in an organ or cavity.

    Synonym: paries
13. A fictional bidder used to increase the price at an auction.

    Synonym: chandelier

14. (US, slang, medicine) A doctor who tries to admit as few patients as possible.

    Antonym: sieve

15. (soccer) A line of defenders set up between an opposing free-kick taker and the goal.
16. (roller derby) Two or more blockers skating together so as to impede the opposing team.
17. (mining) Any of the surfaces of rock enclosing the lode.
18. (Internet) A personal notice board listing messages of interest to a particular user.
19. (roleplaying games) A character that has high defenses, thereby reducing the amount of damage taken from the opponent’s attacks.
20. (slang, seduction community, chiefly definite) The stage of biological aging where physical appearance and attractiveness start to deteriorate rapidly.
21. (historical) The right or privilege of taking the side of the road near the wall when encountering another pedestrian; said to be taken or given.
22. (cycling) A very steep slope.

Synonyms

• (rampart): rampart
• (fictional bidder at an auction): chandelier
• (personal notice board): profile

Meronyms

• (rampart): terreplein (level walkway); parapet, crenellation (minor secondary wall protecting the terreplein); banquette (area elevated above the terreplein for use by defenders)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)

1. To enclose with, or as if with, a wall or walls.

2. (video games, slang) To use a wallhack.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wallen, from Old English weallan (“to bubble, boil”), from Proto-Germanic *wallaną (“to fount, stream, boil”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“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.

Verb

wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)

1. To boil.
2. To well, as water; spring.

Related terms

• well
• overwhelm

Etymology 3

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

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. (chiefly dialectal) A spring of water.

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. (nautical) A kind of knot often used at the end of a rope; a wall knot or wale.

Verb

wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)

1. (transitive, nautical) To make a wall knot on the end of (a rope).

Etymology 5

Interjection

wall

1. (US) Pronunciation spelling of well.

Anagrams

• lawl

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• wahl (interchangeable variant)
• woal (western Eifel; may continue MHG a or o)
• woll, wohl (southern Moselle Franconian)

Etymology

From Middle High German wal(e), from Old High German wala. Cognate with Middle Dutch wale, whence Limburgish waal. Also cognate with the German, Dutch and English words below, though these have a different vocalism.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋal/

Adverb

wall (Ripuarian, parts of northern Moselle Franconian)

1. A modal particle, generally equivalent to German wohl, Dutch wel, sometimes also to English well, but often not literally translatable.

   Du bes wall jeck! ― You must be crazy!

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -al

Verb

wall

1. singular imperative of wallen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of wallen

Middle English

Noun

wall

1. Alternative form of wale (“selection, preference”)

Adjective

wall

1. Alternative form of wale

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɑl/, /wal/

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. A well. (clarification of this definition is needed)