wall (walls plural )
1 n-count A wall is one of the vertical sides of a building or room.
Kathryn leaned against the wall of the church..., The bedroom walls would be painted light blue..., She checked the wall clock.
-walled comb in adj
...a glass-walled elevator...
2 n-count A wall is a long narrow vertical structure made of stone or brick that surrounds or divides an area of land.
He sat on the wall in the sun...
3 n-count The wall of something that is hollow is its side.
with supp
He ran his fingers along the inside walls of the box.
4 n-count A wallof something is a large amount of it forming a high vertical barrier.
with supp, usu N of n
She gazed at the wall of books..., I was just hit by a wall of water.
5 n-count You can describe something as a wallof a particular kind when it acts as a barrier and prevents people from understanding something.
with supp, usu N of n
The police say they met the usual wall of silence...
6
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cavity wall
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dry-stone wall
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fly-on-the-wall
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hole-in-the-wall
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off-the-wall
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retaining wall
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sea wall
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stonewall
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wall-to-wall
7 If you say that you are banging your head against a wall, you are emphasizing that you are frustrated because someone is stopping you from making progress in something.
INFORMAL
to bang your head against a wall phrase V inflects, usu cont (emphasis)
I appealed for help but felt I was always banging my head against a wall..., I wondered if I was banging my head against a brick wall.
8 If you have your back to the wall, you are in a very difficult situation and can see no way out of it.
INFORMAL
have/with your back to the wall phrase back inflects
Their threat to hire replacement workers has the union with its back to the wall.
9 If you say that something or someone is driving you up the wall, you are emphasizing that they annoy and irritate you.
INFORMAL
drive someone up the wall phrase V inflects (emphasis)
The heat is driving me up the wall..., I sang in the bath and drove my parents up the wall.
10 If a person or company goes to the wall, they lose all their money and their business fails.
INFORMAL
go to the wall phrase V inflects
Even quite big companies are going to the wall these days.
11 →
fly on the wall →
fly →
the writing is on the wall →
writing wall in phrasal verb If someone or something is walled in, they are surrounded or enclosed by a wall or barrier. usu passive He is walled in by a mountain of papers in his cluttered Broadway office. be V-ed P
cavity wall (cavity walls plural )A cavity wall is a wall that consists of two separate walls with a space between them. Cavity walls help to keep out noise and cold.
(mainly BRIT) n-count oft N n
...cavity wall insulation.
dry-stone wall (dry-stone walls plural )
in AM, use dry wall A dry-stone wall is a wall that has been built by fitting stones together without using any cement. n-count
fly-on-the-wall
A fly-on-the-wall documentary is made by filming people as they do the things they normally do, rather than by interviewing them or asking them to talk directly to the camera. adj ADJ n
...a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the Queen's life.
→
a fly on the wall
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fly
hole-in-the-wall
A hole-in-the-wall machine is a machine built into the wall of a bank or other building, which allows people to take out money from their bank account by using a special card.
(BRIT)
INFORMAL n-sing usu N n
(=cash dispenser)
in AM, use ATM
off-the-wall
1 adj If you describe something as off-the-wall, you mean that it is unusual and rather strange but in an amusing or interesting way.
INFORMAL usu ADJ n
...surreal off-the-wall humor.
2 adj If you say that a person, their ideas, or their ways of doing something are off-the-wall, you are critical of them because you think they are mad or very foolish., (disapproval)
It can be done without following some absurd, off-the-wall investment strategy.
retaining wall (retaining walls plural )A retaining wall is a wall that is built to prevent the earth behind it from moving. n-count
sea wall (sea walls plural )A sea wall is a wall built along the edge of the sea to stop the sea flowing over the land or destroying it. n-count
Cherbourg had a splendid harbour enclosed by a long sea wall.
video wall (video walls plural )A video wall is a set of video screens that are connected together, so that each screen shows a part of the whole picture or so that the same picture is repeated on each screen. n-count
Wall Street
Wall Street is a street in New York where the Stock Exchange and important banks are. Wall Street is often used to refer to the financial business carried out there and to the people who work there. (BUSINESS) n-proper
On Wall Street, stocks closed at their second highest level today..., Wall Street seems to be ignoring other indications that consumers are spending less.
wall-to-wall
1 adj A wall-to-wall carpet covers the floor of a room completely.
usu ADJ n
2 adj You can use wall-to-wall to describe something that fills or seems to fill all the available space.
usu ADJ n
...television's wall-to-wall soccer coverage...
