WALL

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wall mean? 

• WALL (noun)
  The noun WALL has 8 senses:

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

2. anything that suggests a wall in structure or function or effect

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

4. a difficult or awkward situation

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

6. a layer of material that encloses space

7. a masonry fence (as around an estate or garden)

8. an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes

  Familiarity information: WALL used as a noun is common.

• WALL (verb)
  The verb WALL has 1 sense:

1. surround with a wall in order to fortify

  Familiarity information: WALL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WALL (noun)

Sense 1

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

the walls were covered with pictures

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))

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)

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

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

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

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

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:

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

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)

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

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

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

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 2

Meaning:

Anything that suggests a wall in structure or function or effect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Context example:

negotiations ran into a brick wall

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 3

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

paries; wall

Context example:

stomach walls

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 4

Meaning:

A difficult or awkward situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

competition was pushing them to the wall

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)

Sense 5

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 6

Meaning:

A layer of material that encloses space

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

the container's walls were blue

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

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

Sense 7

Meaning:

A masonry fence (as around an estate or garden)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

he ducked behind the garden wall and waited

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 8

Meaning:

An embankment built around a space for defensive purposes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bulwark; rampart; wall

Context example:

they blew the trumpet and the walls came tumbling down

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:

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)

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)

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)

• WALL (verb)

Conjugation:

Sense 1

Meaning:

Surround with a wall in order to fortify

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

fence; fence in; palisade; surround; wall

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))

 Context examples 

The end wall was exactly like the side ones.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The life that was so swiftly expanding within him, urged him continually toward the wall of light.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

There were a thousand lives to save, but it was of only one that I was thinking when I dropped over the wall that night.

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

Inflammation in the walls of arteries can lead to heart disease.

(Biological Link Found Between Stress, Heart Disease, VOA)

He could marry her and take her down with him to dwell in the grass-walled castle in the Marquesas.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

An acute inflammatory process affecting the esophageal wall.

(Acute Esophagitis, NCI Thesaurus)

So the Scarecrow climbed farther up and sat down on the top of the wall, and Dorothy put her head over and cried, "Oh, my!" just as the Scarecrow had done.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

It is a summer evening, down in a green hollow, at the corner of a wall.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was impossible, that the rest could be beyond these walls of grey.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But this blow was delivered with such violence that the head of the weapon sank deep into the wall.

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