wall

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An upright structure of masonry, wood, plaster, or other building material serving to enclose, divide, or protect an area, especially a vertical construction forming an inner partition or exterior siding of a building.
2. n. A continuous structure of masonry or other material forming a rampart and built for defensive purposes. Often used in the plural.
3. n. A structure of stonework, cement, or other material built to retain a flow of water.
4. n. Something resembling a wall in appearance, function, or construction, as the exterior surface of a body organ or part: the abdominal wall.
5. n. Something resembling a wall in impenetrability or strength: a wall of silence; a wall of fog.
6. n. An extreme or desperate condition or position, such as defeat or ruin: driven to the wall by poverty.
7. n. Sports The vertical surface of an ocean wave in surfing.
8. v. To enclose, surround, or fortify with or as if with a wall: wall up an old window. See Synonyms at enclose.
9. v. To divide or separate with or as if with a wall. Often used with off: wall off half a room.
10. v. To confine or seal behind a wall; immure: "I determined to wall [the body] up in the cellar” ( Edgar Allan Poe).
11. v. To block or close (an opening or passage, for example) with or as if with a wall.
12. idiom. off the wall Slang Extremely unconventional.
13. idiom. off the wall Slang Without foundation; ridiculous: an accusation that is really off the wall.
14. idiom. up the wall Slang Into a state of extreme frustration, anger, or distress: tensions that are driving me up the wall.
15. idiom. writing An ominous indication of the course of future events: saw the writing on the wall and fled the country.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Abbreviations of Wallachian.
2. n. A work or structure of stone, brick, or other materials, serving to inclose a space, form a division, support, superincumbent weight, or afford a defense, shelter, or security. Specifically— One of the upright inclosing sides of a building or a room.
3. n. A solid and permanent inclosing fence of masonry, as around a field, a garden, a park, or a town.
4. n. A rampart; a fortified enceinte or barrier: often in the plural. See cuts under chemm-deronde, fortification, and retaining wall.
5. n. Something which resembles or suggests a wall: as, a wall of armed men; a wall of fire.
6. n. A defense; means of security or protection.
7. n. In mining, one of the surfaces of rock between which the vein or lode is inclosed; the country, or country rock, adjacent to the vein. See vein. If the vein is, as is usually the case, inclined at an angle, the wall which is over the miner's head, or overhangs him, is called the hanging wall; that which is under him, the foot-wall. In coal-mining the rock adjacent to the bed of coal which is being worked is called the roof or the floor, according as it is above or beneath, and this is the case whether the strata be horizontal or inclined at an angle. The walls of a vein are called in some parts of England the cheeks.
8. n. In heraldry, a bearing having some resemblance to a wall, usually embattled. It generally covers a large part of the escutcheon, and the line of division between it and the field may he bendwise, or bendwise sinister. It is, therefore, a division of the field by an embattled or crenelle line, the lower part being masoned, and having usually an arched doorway represented in it.
9. n. In anatomy and zoology, a paries; an extended investing or containing structure or part of the body: as, a cell-wall; the walls of the chest or abdomen: generally in the plural
10. n. In cor als, the proper outer investment of the visceral chamber, whether of a single corallum or of a single corallite of a compound corallum. Hard structures upon the inside of the wall are the endotheca; upon the outside, the exotheca. The condition of the wall varies greatly: it is pervious, as in the Perforata, or impervious, as in the Aporosa; smooth, or variously costate, striate, etc.; and it may be indistinguishably united with the cœnenchyme, or replaced more or less completely by the epitheca.
11. n. Same as wall-knot
12. To inclose with a wall or as with a wall; furnish with walls: as, to wall a city.
13. To defend by walls; fortify.
14. To obstruct or hinder as by a wall.
15. To fill up with a wall.
16. In English university slang, same as gate.
17. To boil.
18. To well, as water; spring.
19. n. A spring of water.
20. n. A disease of the eyes: same as walleye.

Wiktionary

1. v. To boil.
2. v. To well, as water; spring.
3. n. A spring of water.
4. n. A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.
5. n. A structure built for defense surrounding a city, castle etc.
6. n. Each of the substantial structures acting either as the exterior of or divisions within a structure.
7. n. A point of desperation.
8. n. A point of defeat or extinction.
9. n. An impediment to free movement.
10. n. A type of butterfly (Lasiommata megera).
11. n. often in combination A barrier.
12. n. A barrier to vision.
13. n. Something with the apparent solidity and dimensions of a building wall.
14. n. anatomy, zoology, botany A divisive or containing structure in an organ or cavity.
15. n. auction A fictional bidder used to increase the price at an auction. Also called a chandelier.
16. n. soccer A line of defenders set up between an opposing free-kick taker and the goal.
17. n. Internet A personal notice board listing messages of interest to a particular user.
18. v. To enclose with a wall
19. v. with "in" To enclose by surrounding with walls.
20. v. with "off" To separate with a wall
21. v. with "up" To seal with a wall

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Naut.) A kind of knot often used at the end of a rope; a wall knot; a wale.
2. n. A work or structure of stone, brick, or other materials, raised to some height, and intended for defense or security, solid and permanent inclosing fence, as around a field, a park, a town, etc., also, one of the upright inclosing parts of a building or a room.
3. n. A defense; a rampart; a means of protection; in the plural, fortifications, in general; works for defense.
4. n. An inclosing part of a receptacle or vessel.
5. n. The side of a level or drift.
6. n. The country rock bounding a vein laterally.
7. v. To inclose with a wall, or as with a wall.
8. v. To defend by walls, or as if by walls; to fortify.
9. v. To close or fill with a wall, as a doorway.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a difficult or awkward situation
2. n. an architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure
3. n. a layer of material that encloses space
4. n. an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes
5. n. a vertical (or almost vertical) smooth rock face (as of a cave or mountain)
6. n. anything that suggests a wall in structure or function or effect
7. n. (anatomy) a layer (a lining or membrane) that encloses a structure
8. v. surround with a wall in order to fortify
9. n. a masonry fence (as around an estate or garden)