| 释义 |
▪ I. wall, n.1|wɔːl|
Forms: 1 weall, weal, wall, 3–7 wal, walle, 4–7 wale, 4–6 Sc. vall, 6 Sc. val(e, (5 whalle,) 6 waule, (wawle), 8–9 Sc. wa', 3– wall.
[OE. wall (WS. weall), corresp. to OFris. wal, OS. wal(l, (M)LG., (M)Du. wal, MHG. wal from MLG. (mod.G. wall), a Saxon and Anglo-Frisian adoption of L. vallum. The Sw. vall, Da. val, are from LG.]
I.
1. a. A rampart of earth, stone, or other material constructed for defensive purposes. [= L. vallum.]
In OE. frequently used with the meaning ‘a natural rampart, hill, cliff’: see Bosw.-Toller.
c900Bæda's Hist. i. ix [xii]. (1890) 46 Þæt hi ᵹemænelice fæsten ᵹeworhten him to ᵹescyldnesse, stænene weal rihtre stiᵹe fram eastsæ oð westsæ. c1000ælfric Exod. xiv. 22 And þæt water stod an twa healfa þære stræte swilce tweᵹen heᵹe weallas. a1122O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 189 Þa ᵹe wrohte he weall mid turfum & bred weall ðær on ufon fram sæ to sæ Britwalum to ᵹebeorᵹe. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2184 Þat folc þo of þis lond..Bigonne to rere þon stronge wal. c1450Mirk's Festial 2 Þe watyr schall be hear then ayny hyll, by xlti cubytys, stondyng styll yn her styd, as hit wer a wall. 1581J. Hamilton Cath. Traict. 34 Moyses..causit the valter stand vp als ferme as ane vall quhil the Israelites past throu. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 26 Their carriages were so many, that therewith they intrenched their campe, like a wal. 1643R. Baker Chron. 2 The Emperor Adrian,..who made a great wall of earth between England and Scotland. 1699Temple Hist. Eng. (ed. 2) 38 Agricola began..a Wall or Vallum, upon that narrow space of Land that lies between the two Fryths. 1728Pope Dunc. iii. 76 He, whose long wall the wand'ring Tartar bounds. 1791Boswell Johnson an. 1778 (1904) II. 203 He expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China. 1850Smith's Class. Dict. s.v. Serica, The Great Wall of China is mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus under the name of Aggeres Serium.
transf.1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 141 They of those Marches..Shall be a Wall sufficient to defend Our in-land from the pilfering Borderers.
b. An embankment to hold back the water of a river or the sea. Cf. sea-wall.
1330Rolls of Parlt. II. 36/2 De faire & de garder les Walles contre l'ewe de Tamys. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 209 b, At whiche season was suche a spryng tide, that it brake the walles of Hollande and Zelande. 1593Norden Spec. Brit., M'sex i. 17 Blackwall... The place taketh name of the blackenes or darkenes of the water bankes, or wall at that place. 1697De Foe Ess. Projects 121 In our Marshes and Fens..where great Quantities of Land being..recovered out of the Seas and Rivers, and maintain'd with Banks (which they call Walls). 1713Lond. Gaz. No. 5122/11 Two Pieces of Thames Wall, with the Ozier Ground and Foreland thereto belonging,..are to be Sold. 1888Fenn Dick o' the Fens iv. 49 foot-note, ‘Wall,’ in fen lands, the artificial bank or ridge of clay raised to keep back river, drain, or sea. 1898P. H. Emerson Marsh Leaves lix. 179 He stopped, and looked along the rosy dike, uttered a hasty exclamation, and ran down the wall.
2. a. A defensive structure enclosing a city, castle, etc. Chiefly pl., fortifications. [= L. murus.]
c825Vesp. Psalter xvii. 30 In gode minum ic ofergaa wall. c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) lix. 8 Hwylc ᵹelædeð me leofran on ceastre, weallum beworhte? a1200Moral Ode 41 in O.E. Hom. I. 163 Þes riche Men weneð bon siker þurh walle & þurh diche. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 11433 Aȝen alle halwe churche þe verste dich hii nome & brake þe otemoste wal. a1300K. Horn (Hall) 1042 In strong halle, Bi inne castel walle. 1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 326 The engyns with oute, to kast were þei sette, Wallis & kirnels stoute, þe stones doun bette. 1375Barbour Bruce vi. 445 Thai sparit the ȝettis hastely, And in hy to the vallis ran. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xxi. 292 Brynston boilaunt brennyng out-casteþ hit Al hot [on] here heuedes þat entren ny þe walles. c1470Henry Wallace v. 1136 Tre wark thai brynt..Wallis brak doun that stalwart war off stanys. 1490Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) 371 For the kepyng of every yate of the walleys of this citte. 1586Whitney Choice Emblems 110 Then Scipio comes, that Carthage waules did race. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 2 Go to the Gates of Burdeaux Trumpeter, Summon their Generall vnto the Wall. Ibid. v. iii. 129 At your Fathers Castle walles, Wee'l craue a parley. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 657 Others from the Wall defend With Dart and Jav'lin, Stones and sulfurous Fire. 1697Dryden æneis ii. 456 To..rush undaunted to defend the Walls. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, Madame de la Motte gave a last look to the walls of Paris. 1823Lamb Elia ii. Poor Relations, He was among the first who perished before the walls of St. Sebastian. 1837Penny Cycl. IX. 468/1 Towards the east the external wall [of Ephesus] crosses a hill, called Lepre... Other internal walls extend further south. 1847Grote Greece (1862) II. xix. 470 Babylon..was surrounded by walls three hundred feet in height.
fig.1592Arden of Feversham i. i. 47 Sweete words are fittest engines To race the flint walles of a womans breast.
b. within the walls: within the ancient boundaries (of a city) as distinguished from the suburbs; hence fig. within the limits (of the Church, † Europe, † Christendom, etc.)
1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. iv. iii. (1600) L 4 b, I think him the tallest man liuing within the walls of Europe. 1627J. Taylor (Water-P.) Navy of Land Ships D 3, In a place which I could name within the Walles of Christen⁓dome. 1667Observ. Burning Lond. 15 The City of London within the Walls was seated upon about 460 Acres of Ground. 1722De Foe Plague (1754) 6 To the great Affliction of the City, one died within the Walls, in the Parish of St. Mary-Wool-Church. 1860J. W. Warter Sea-board II. 468 The devout on earth will ever be found within the Church's walls.
c. Her. A representation of an embattled wall used as a bearing.
1688Holme Armoury iii. 400/1 He beareth Argent..a Wall corniced, with two Towers upon it. 1889Elvin Dict. Her. 131 Wall embattled in bend sinister.
3. fig.
a. Applied to a person or thing that serves as a defence.
1412–20Lydg. Troy-bk. iv. 1958 For he of Troye is Þe myȝti wal And diffence, now Hector is [a-]goon. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxxv. 73 Imperiall wall, place palestrall,..Aue Maria, gratia plena! 1565Allen Defence Purg. xvii. 281 One common engine they haue..for the sore shakinge of the weake waules of the simples faithe. 1581A. Hall Iliad iii. 52 It is Aiax the strong, Who is best hope, defence and wall, that to the Greeks belong. 1611Shakes. Cymb. ii. i. 68 The Heauens hold firme The walls of thy deere Honour. 1838Lytton Leila v. i, We will leave our homes unguarded—our hearts shall be their wall!
b. Applied to the sea, the navy or shipping (as Britain's external defence); also to an army (as the safeguard of a country).
wooden walls (applied to ships): see wooden a.
1436Libel Eng. Policy in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 203 Kepte [v.r. kepe] than the see abought in specialle, Whiche of England is the rounde walle; As thoughe England were lykened to a cite. 1642Declar. Lords & Comm. 12–13 July 3 The ships which are the wals of the Kingdome. 1643R. Baker Chron. 2 At which time [of Julius Cæsar] the Island was yet but in manner of a Village, being without Wals, as having no shipping, (which are indeed the true Wals of an Island). 1657Trapp Comm. Ezra ix. 9 ‘To give us a wall’—Protection and safeguard, as the Walles of Sparta was their Militia, and the Walles of England, is our Navy. 1697Sir M. Beckman in Sydney Papers I. 171 The Army by Land, and the Fleet, was accounted the Walls of England.
4. An enclosing structure composed of bricks, stones, or similar materials laid in courses.
hollow wall, a wall built with an interior cavity or composed of hollow bricks. For blind, boulder, cob, dead, hot, list, rubble wall, etc., see those words; also brick wall n.1, mud wall, party-wall, stone wall.
a. Each of the sides and vertical divisions of a building.
to stand to the wall (Sc.): of a door, to be wide open. walls have ears (Proverb): see ear n.1 3.
c900Bæda's Hist. ii. xi [xiv]. (1890) 138 ærþon heo seo heannis þæs wealles [sc. of a church] ᵹefylled wære & ᵹeendad. a1300Cursor M. 19313 We find ur prisuns all a-wai, þe dors sperd, þe walles hale. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 61 Þe wal wagged and clef and al þe worlde quaued. c1435Torr. Portugal 244 Sone hard he within a whalle The syghyng of a lady smalle, Sche weppte, as sche were wod. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 142 Of the whiche buyldynge..the foure walles be the foure cardinall vertues. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. iv. 49 In Iron Walls they deem'd me not secure. 1596― Merch. V., ii. ix. 29 Which..like the Martlet Builds in the weather on the outward wall. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients Ep. Ded., To make use of that, which in your service, and within the walls of your own house, I had produced. 1649Lovelace To Althea fr. Prison iv, Stone Walls do not a Prison make. 1728Ramsay Fables, Monk & Miller's Wife 256 Wauk forth, the door stands to the wa'. 1732Pope Ep. Bathurst 188 Like some lone Chartreux stands the good old Hall, Silence without, and Fasts within the wall. 1816Scott Bl. Dwarf vii, Look at the burnt wa's of our kinsman's house. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 307 Walls of stone may be made one⁓fifth thinner than those of brick. 1837Dickens Pickw. xl, Mr. Pickwick found himself, for the first time in his life, within the walls of a debtor's prison. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 447/2 The inclined roof of a building, spanning from wall to wall, tends to thrust out the walls.
In figurative context (after Acts xxiii. 3).
1593G. Harvey Pierces Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 173 If Percase I happen to touch some painted walles, and godly hypocrites.
b. An enclosing structure built round a garden, field, yard, or other property; also, each of the portions between the angles of such an enclosure.
a1300Cursor M. 8233 A wall a-bote dide for to rais, And planted tres þat war to prais. 1587L. Mascall Govt. Cattle, Hogges (1596) 263 It were good to make the walles or hedges of your sties of foure foote hie. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. i. 5 He ran this way and leapt this Orchard wall. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 7 A most stately Grove of Cocoes and Oranges..surrounded by a Wall. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 865 On dry banks, trunks of trees, and walls. 1833Tennyson Lady of Shalott i. ii, Four gray walls, and four gray towers, Overlook a space of flowers.
†c. wall of timber: a wooden partition, a fence.
1463Bury Wills (Camden) 20, I will yt my newe hous..be deseverid..with a walle of tymbyr fro the hefd place.
†d. As a place or means of torture. Obs.
1528Tindale Obed. Chr. Man 149 And when they crye furiously hold the heretikes vnto the wall and if they will not revoke burne them. 1590in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (1908) V. 179 Another warrant..to commytte them.. unto such torture upon the wawle as is usuall.
e. The inner side of a sidewalk or pavement; the side next the wall. (Cf. the phrases to give, take the wall in 16.)
1606Choice, Chance, etc. (1881) 70 Snuffes vp the Nose, and swaggers for the wall. 1620I. C. Two Merry Milk-maids ii. ii. F 2, But now I will giue no man place at Wall or Kennell. 1710Addison Tatler No. 250 ⁋11 All such as have been defrauded of their Right to the Wall. 1732Pope Ep. Cobham 234 Behold a rev'rend sire..Shov'd from the wall perhaps, or rudely press'd By his own son.
f. (a) In the phrase at the wall, designating a species of football peculiar to Eton played against a wall, as distinguished from that played ‘in the field’. (b) Applied to each of the players who form the ‘bully’ or scrimmage against the wall.
1864[B. Hemyng] Eton School Days xxiii. 254 But give me, for real enjoyment..a good game of football at Eton, either at the wall or in the open field. 1883Sat. Rev. 1 Dec. 696/1 Football ‘at the Wall’ takes its name from being played against the brick wall which divides the Slough Road from the Lower Playing Fields. Ibid., Three of the players on either side, known as ‘walls’, form a line against the rough bricks. 1887Shearman Athletics & Football (Badm.) 280 The game is begun by a ‘bully’ in the centre of the wall. The ‘wall’ whose turn it is to ‘go in’, forms down with his shoulder against the wall,..the two other ‘walls’ back him up... The ball is placed against the wall between the feet of the two first opposing ‘walls’, and the game begins.
g. The Wall: ellipt. for Wailing Wall s.v. wailing vbl. n. c.
1895J. Smith Pilgrimage to Palestine xvi. 219 The ‘Wailing Place of the Jews’..is situated a little to the north... High overhead towered the..stones of the Temple Wall..with the Wall itself..rising to a height of 60 feet... There, with their faces to the wall—kissing the stones,..or joining in a loud chorus of lamentation..stood a long row of Jews. 1928Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 6 in Parl. Papers 1928–9 (Cmd. 3229) XV. 105 His Majesty's Government regard it as their duty..to maintain the established Jewish right of access to the pavement in front of the Wall for the purposes of their devotions. 1967C. Potok Chosen xii. 198 He died while praying at the Wall for the Messiah to come and redeem his people. 1973Guardian 21 June 2/7 The present intention is to link the Wall with the historic ‘upper city’ (now the Jewish Quarter).
h. The Wall: ellipt. for Berlin Wall, the wall surrounding West Berlin and separating it from communist East Berlin and the rest of East Germany (erected in 1961).
1961Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 20 Oct. 1/1 Here in Berlin communism has created one of the ugliest and most depressing sights on the face of the globe. It is The Wall—the wall of death, the new concrete curtain of communism. 1964Ann. Reg. 1963 225 It was stated that 1,283,918 had crossed the Wall by the time it closed on 5 January 1964. 1977G. Markstein Chance Awakening lxxviii. 243 My father had his legs blown off..when he tried to flee over the Wall.
5. fig. Something which is a barrier or impediment to intellectual, moral, spiritual, or social union or intercourse; also more definitely wall of partition.
a1225Ancr. R. 262 And ȝet, ȝe habbeð þet ilke blod, & tet ilke blisfule bodi..niht & dei bi on. Nis þer buten a wal bitweonen. a1240Ureisun in O.E. Hom. I. 187 Mine sunnen beoþ wal bi-tweone me & þe. a1500Chester Pl., Fall Lucifer 153 Alas! that pride is the wall of lewtye. 1562Winȝet Cert. Tractatis Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 27/4 To attempt sic proude misordour sall..big vp ane wal betuix vs and ȝou in religioun. 1766,1872Wall of partition [see partition n. 2]. 1843Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) I. 17 A wall of tradition, which may not be broken through. 1900St. Barbe Mod. Spain 16 He..barricades himself behind an unassailable wall of self-sufficiency.
6. A wall considered with regard to its surface.
a. The interior wall of an apartment.
the writing on the wall (after Dan. v.): see writing vbl. n.
Beowulf 326 Setton sæmeþe side scyldas, rondas reᵹn⁓hearde, wið þæs recedes weal. c1290St. Dunstan 142 in S. Eng. Leg. 23 Þe harpe song al bi hire-self as heo heng bi þe walle. c1430in Babees Bk. 27 Aȝen þe post lete not þi bak abide, neiþer make þi myrrour also of þe wal. c1535G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 949 To sile a wale, lambroisser. 1562A. Brooke Romeus & Jul. 2410 She thinkes to speake to Iuliet, but speaketh to the walles. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. i. ii. 171 All the inrolled penalties Which haue (like vn-scowr'd Armor) hung by th' wall So long. 1607― Cor. i. iii. 12. a 1629 Hinde J. Bruen xxvi. (1641) 82 They..who have sought for Christ and his Apostles, not in the holy Booke of God, but in painted wales and windows. 1639J. Taylor (Water P.) Part of Summers Trav. Wks. iii. (1872) 43 In the mean time, the Preacher speaks to the bare walls. 1735Pope Prol. Sat. 20 Is there, who, lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls With desp'rate charcoal round his darken'd walls? 1781Cowper Charity 552 Guns, halberts, swords, and pistols, great and small, In starry forms dispos'd upon the wall. 1781― Hope 346 From stucco'd walls smart arguments rebound. 1859Lever Dav. Dunn xix, The walls were decorated with coloured prints and drawings. 1891Law Times XCII. 79/1 This almanack has been familiar for many years on the walls of barristers, solicitors, and public offices.
b. A garden- or house-wall upon which fruit-trees and flowering trees are trained.
1699–Fruit wall [see fruit n. 9]. 1707Mortimer Husb. 527 Having occasion to find fault with the common sort of Walls for Fruits, it gives me an opportunity of recommending..sloping Walls. 1734Pope Hor. Sat. ii. ii. 146 And grapes, long ling'ring on my only wall. 1781Cowper Retirem. 494 Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall. 1784― Task iii. 408 Proud of his well-spread walls, he views his trees. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 336 Yet he sent..garden-herbs and fruit, The late and early roses from his wall.
in fig. context.1857Trollope Barchester T. I. xix. 287 They habitually looked on the sunny side of the wall. 1858― Dr. Thorne I. vi. 141 Women grow on the sunny side of the wall.
†7. Walling. Obs. rare—1.
1603G. Owen Pembrokeshire (1892) 70 This lymestone..is putt into a kill made of wall.
II. Transferred uses.
8. a. Something that resembles a wall in appearance; a perpendicular surface forming an enclosure or barrier.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 567 Huge Oxen stand inclos'd in wint'ry Walls Of Snow congeal'd. 1736Gray Statius ii. 14 The theatre's green height and woody wall. 1820Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 20 Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain. 1842Tennyson Day-Dream 65 A wall of green Closed-matted, bur and brake and briar. 1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xlvi, The black wall of forest beyond. Ibid. xlviii, A wall of water, looming high above her main⁓yard, came rushing and booming along. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xx. 143 Midway down the spur I lighted upon a transverse wall of rock. 1903Kipling Five Nations 2 The in-rolling walls of the fog.
†b. Mil. in wall: of battalions, extended in one continuous line like a wall. Obs.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 741/1 The enemy's army..is in two lines, the first of which is formed in wall..; the second is formed with large intervals.
c. In the game of Mah Jong, the arrangement of tiles from which hands are drawn. Cf. tile n.1 4 b.
1922Lit. Digest 30 Dec. 38 One studies the unfolding of Ma Jung, one detects Eastern cunning to whet the skill, first the building of the ‘wall’, undoubtedly meaning the great wall of China, one of the seven wonders of the world. 1950E. Culbertson Culbertson's Hoyle 415 Wall game, void game by exhaustion of the wall without any declaration of a complete hand. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VI. 503/3 Thereafter, the other players, in counterclockwise rotation, each draw one tile, which may be the last discarded tile or a loose tile from the ‘wall’.
d. Baseball. The barrier marking the outer perimeter of the outfield.
1928G. H. Ruth Babe Ruth's Own Bk. Baseball 25 The boys began smacking the fences with long drives, outfielders began playing with their backs to the wall and infielders had to move back on the grass or have their legs torn off with hot drives. Ibid. 117 The ball was hit far over his head to the center field wall. 1973Internat. Herald Tribune 15 June 15/3 The closest the Reds had come to a hit was Pete Rose's long drive to left-center in the third that Jim Dwyer caught at the wall.
e. Assoc. Football. A line of defence players who defend their team's goal during a free kick.
1948Hankinson & Chadder Soccer for Schools Plate 29 (caption) The usual procedure for the defence to adopt is for a ‘wall’ of players to block the line of a direct shot for goal. 1965D. Bacuzzi How to play Association Football xv. 56 (caption) Notice how the ‘wall’ of defenders allows the goalkeeper space to see. 1976E. Dunphy Only a Game? v. 149, I scored direct from a free kick. Curled it round the wall into the top corner from just outside the box.
f. Surfing. The steep face of a wave before it breaks.
1962T. Masters Surfing made Easy 66 Wall, the steep portion of a wave almost ready to break. 1965J. Pollard Surfrider ii. 20 The steep face of that wave is called its ‘wall’. 1968Surfer Mag. Jan. 17/1 ‘Just Ken’ probably doesn't know what it is like to ride a well-shaped wall while hanging ten except when he is smoking grass.
9. a. Something that confines or encloses like the wall of a house, prison, etc.; chiefly pl., the containing sides of a vessel, the vertical sides of a tent, and the like.
1594Selimus D 1 You thinke it strange..To see me low laie off effeminate robes, And arme my bodie in an iron wall. 1595Shakes. John iii. iii. 20 Within this wall of flesh There is a soule counts thee her Creditor. 1615R. Cocks Diary (Hakl. Soc.) I. 57 The walle or neting the king caused to be made to fish was borne downe in the night with the force of the tide. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. xx. (1653) 327 The walls..of the Breasts [of infants], are..depraved by Nurses, while they..do overstrictly bind them. 1790W. H. Marshall Rur. Econ. Midl. II. 445 Wall; the stem of a rick is called the walls. 1878Huxley Physiogr. vi. 89 The walls of a closed vessel containing air are pressed outwards by the elastic force of the confined air. 1879Encycl. Brit. IX. 251/1 The drift-net..forms a long wall or barrier of netting hanging for a few fathoms perpendicularly in the water. 1897Outing XXX. 375/1 [A tent] which has walls at least three feet high, should answer.
b. The pastry forming the sides of a pie.
1747H. Glasse Art of Cookery viii. 73 Make a good Standing Crust, let the Wall and Bottom be very thick. 1894L. Heritage Cassell's New Universal Cookery Bk. 785/1 Form the walls of the pie with the left hand. The sides should be smooth and of equal thickness. 1959Listener 22 Jan. 191/2 Lid the flan with pastry, having egged the top of the ‘wall’.
10. Mining.
a. The coating or crust of a lode or vein; also, the side of a mine next to this.
For foot-wall, hanging-wall see foot n. 35, hanging ppl. a. 6.
1728Phil. Trans. XXXV. 404 Sometimes,..the Mine is lined with an intermediate Substance between the Load and it self. This is (properly speaking) the Wall of the Load: Though, in the Common Acceptation of that Term, it signifies either such intermediate Substance, or the Side of the Mine, where the Load immediately unites it self to it. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XII. 39/1 The capels or walls of the lode. 1818W. Phillips Geol. 210 A..crust occasionally covers one or both sides of the vein, technically called the walls of the load. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Wall. 1. The side of a level or drift. 2. The country-rock bounding a vein laterally.
b. Coal-mining. (See quot. 1883.)
long wall: see long a.1 18. stenting wall: see stenting n.
1750in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Rec. App. ii. 124 Carrying Coals from the Coal Walls where they are dug to the bottom of the Pit or Shaft. 1839Ure Dict. Arts, etc. 979 The first set [of workmen] curves or pools the coal along the whole line of walls. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Wall. 1. The face of a long-wall working or stall, commonly called the coal-wall. 2. (North of Eng.) A rib of solid coal between two boards. Ibid., Walls (Scotl.) Short working faces or stalls (also headings 6 ft. in width) from 12 to 20 yards wide.
c. to the wall: see quot.
1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Wall (‘To the Wall’) (North of Eng.). A term signifying breadth, in reference to the size of pillars in the system of working known as Pillar and Stall.
11. Engraving. (See quots.)
1797Encycl. Brit. VI. 742/2 (Etching), A border of soft wax..must be fastened round the plate about an inch high, in the form of a little wall or rampart, to contain the aquafortis. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 767 The plate is surrounded with a border or wall, about an inch high, composed of bees' wax. 1839Chatto & Jackson Wood Engraving 715 The plate is surrounded with a wall, as it is technically termed, and aquafortis being poured upon it, all the unprotected parts are corroded, and the drawing left in relief.
12. Anat. and Zool. The membranous investment or lining tissue (of any organ or cavity of the body, of a vesicle, tumour, and the like). Also Bot., the cellulose membrane (of a cell).
1677Grew Anat. Fruits iv. §5 As by Refraction, Objects of all Sizes are represented on the Walls of the Eye. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 85 These [adipose] vesicles are so thin that it is impossible to distinguish their walls. 1876J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. (1878) 889 The walls of ovarian tumours consist mainly of connective tissue. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 469 He then cut diagonally across, and actually lifted the wall of the chest, and groped about among the vitals for the bullet.
b. The outer horny covering of the foot of a horse.
1830J. Hinds Osmer's Treat. Horse (ed. 5) 7 note, This is the earliest mention we can find of the crust or hoof proper, being denominated the wall of the foot, a term which has now become general among us. [The passage referred to (Osmer, ? 1756) reads ‘like a wall’]. 1831Youatt Horse xv. 280 The crust or wall of the hoof..is that portion which is seen when the foot is placed on the ground.
III. Phrases.
13. to go to the wall (or † walls):
a. to give way, succumb in a conflict or struggle.
1589Pasquil's Ret. A iiij, They neuer went to the wall, till they grewe to be factious. 1601J. Wheeler Treat. Comm. 111 Wee should go to the walles, be wronged and exacted vpon euery where. 1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxix, Sam and Mayford are both desperately in love with her, and one must go to the wall. 1861Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xx. 385 It is easy to see which power will go to the wall if a conflict occurs. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset xliii, In all these struggles Crosbie had had the best of it, and Butterwell had gone to the wall.
Proverb. [1535: see waw] .1549Cheke Hurt Sedit. (1641) 53 When brethren agree not in a house, goeth not the weakest to the walls? 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 53 The weakest must still to the wall. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. i. 18. 1651 Culpepper Astrol. Judgem. Dis. (1658) 80 You know the old proverb, The weakest goes to the Walls.
b. Of a business, matter, etc.: To give way or give precedence (to something else).
1858Gladstone Homer III. 519 Here is another case of metre against history, and in all such cases history must go (as is said) to the wall. 1890M'Carthy Four Georges II. 45 Where political interests interfered family arrangements went to the wall.
c. To fail in business.
1842Thackeray Miss Tickletoby's Lect. vi. Wks. 1886 XXIV. 37 It was better for all parties that poor Shortlegs should go to the wall. 1854Surtees Handley Cr. lxxii. (1901) II. 253 He had been the property of some East-end Bowker, who, in classical language, had ‘gone to the wall’. 1879Spencer Data of Ethics xv. §103. 266 Others of his [a merchant's] debtors by going to the wall may put him in further difficulties. 189119th Cent. Dec. 861 In Berlin a newspaper would very soon go to the wall if it did not present its subscribers with light entertainment.
14. to † set, † thrust, or send to the wall: to thrust aside into a position of neglect.
1583Babington Commandm. 334 God knowes..how often they are wrecked and wronged and set to the wal by cruell..and hard hearted men. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. i. 20 Women being the weaker Vessels, are euer thrust to the wall. 1881E. W. Hamilton Diary 13 Mar. (1972) I. 115 Lord Bath..is much exercised in his mind as to the Greek question sending to the wall the interests of Servia. 1901N. & Q. 9th Ser. VIII. 411/1 During the later fifties he was sent to the wall by the superior talents of the late Robert Prowse.
15. to drive (or push) to the wall: to drive to the last extremity.
with or having one's back to the wall: see back n.1 25.
1546J. Heywood Prov. ii. v. (1867) 58 That deede without woords shall driue him to the wall. And further than the wall he can not go. 1644Prynne & Walker Fiennes's Trial 34 The Colonell thus driven to the wall and worsted on every hand, used two pleas more for his last reserve. 1818Scott Rob Roy xxxii, I see what you are driving me to the wa' about. 1828Napier Penins. War iii. iii. I. 336 The commissaries pushed to the wall by the delay, offered an exorbitant remuneration. 1860L. V. Harcourt Diaries G. Rose II. 30 Being..driven to the wall, Addington complied.
16. a. to give a person the wall: to allow a person the right or privilege of walking next the wall as the cleaner and safer side of a pavement, sidewalk, etc. Similarly, to have, take the wall (of a person), to have, take the inside position.
1537Thersytes 150 Yes, yes, god wote they geve me the wall, Or elles with my clubbe I make them to fall. 1592Arden of Feversham v. i, I haue made some go vppon wodden legges for taking the wall on me. 1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 95 The Persians had a law enioyning all men..to giue him [an elder] the wall when they mett him in the streetes. 1703Rules Civility 11 Giving..the Right-hand or Wall in the Street. 1773Johnson in Boswell Tour Hebrides 20 Sept., In the last age..there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall, and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome... Now, it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it, and it is never a dispute. 1869A. J. Munby Diary 24 Dec. in D. Hudson Munby (1972) vii. 278 ‘If a nigger didn't give me the wall, I'd knock him down as soon as look at him!’ Here we have the British Philistine.
1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 76 b, I weigh it little, that my equall, hauing the wall of me, should goe from it to giue me place. 1605Heywood If you know not Me E 1 b, Enter the Englishman, and Spaniard. Spa. The wall, the wall. Eng. Sblood Spaniard you get no wall here,..but since you will needs Haue the wall, Ile take the paynes to thrust You into the kennell. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! xxv, The Spaniards..had..no room, in that narrow path, to use their pikes. The English had the wall of them; and to have the wall there, was to have the foe's life at their mercy.
1587Greene Penelopes Web Wks. (Grosart) V. 201 The wife of a poore Smith meeting the Empresse Faustina, tooke the wall of her in the streetes. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 28 Nothing was more common with them then to fight about taking the right or left hand, or the wall. 1757Foote Author i. Wks. 1799 I. 135 He wou'd take the wall of a Prince of the Blood. 1821Scott Kenilw. iv, To..quarrel in her cause with any flat-capp'd thread-maker that would take the wall of her. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xxxiii, The parlour window..is so close upon the foot-way that the passenger who takes the wall brushes the dim glass with his coat sleeve.
b. fig. (In early use sometimes without article, to give wall, take wall.)
1591Nashe Wonderf. Prognost. Wks. (Grosart) II. 157 The Bakers Basket shall giue wall vnto the Brewers Barrell. 1608Bp. Hall Serm. Pharasaism Wks. (1625) 413 Some Traditions must haue place in euery Church; but, Their place: they may not take wall of Scripture. 1652― Invis. World iii. §1 If a supposed and self respective good be suffered to take the wall of the best and absolute good. 1679R. W. Cromwell's Ghost 2 Though old in Artful Wickedness I be, Yet Rome, I now Resign the Wall to thee. 1758L. Temple Sketches (ed. 2) 59 According to nice Herald-like Ceremony, the Son, as the better Gentleman, ought to take the Wall of the Father.
†17. to lie by the wall (or walls), to lie on one side, remain idle or unused; of a ship, to lie up (in dock or harbour); also to lay by the walls. Obs.
1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 46/2 And the law in the meane time must lye by the walles [Fr. demeure là]. 1656Burton's Diary (1828) I. 82, I am glad the mariners are so sensible of the laying of our English ships by the walls. 1658–9Ibid. III. 462 Our ships lie by the walls, and theirs ride. 1672Wallis in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 529 To put forth what France is not willing to venture upon, provided that it do not hinder the printing those of our own nation,..which lie by the wall for want of publishing. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 66 He walked towards that part of the Creek, where..three of their largest ships lay by the walls. 1787Grose Provinc. Gloss. s.v. Wall, He lies by the wall. Spoken of a person dead but not buried. Norf. and Suf.
18. (To be able) to see, etc. through or into a (brick, mud, stone) wall: to be endowed with great keenness of perception or understanding.
1598Marston Pygmal., Sat. ii, Thou know'st I am sure, for thou canst cast thine eie Through nine mud walls, or els old Poets lie. 1885Illustr. Lond. News 7 Feb. 136/4 Lord Sherbrooke..can see as far as most people into a stone wall.
19. to turn one's face to the wall: said of a person on his deathbed conscious of the approach of the end (? after 2 Kings xx. 2, Isa. xxxviii. 2).
1579in Narratives Reform. (Camden) 35 He turned his face to the walle in the sayd belfry; and so after his prayers sleapte swheetly in the Lorde. 16..Barbara Allen's Cruelty ix. in Child Ballads II. 277 He turnd his face unto the wall, And death came creeping to him. 1856Knight Pop. Hist. Eng. I. xxi. 304 He [Henry II] turned his face to the wall, and exclaimed, ‘Let every thing go as it will’. [Cf. Girald. Cambrens. (Rolls) VIII. 295 iterum se lecto reclinans faciemque suam ad parietem vertens.] 1876‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer iii, He would turn his face to the wall, and die with that word unsaid.
20. to go over the wall and varr.: (a) to go to prison; (b) to escape from prison; (c) to leave a religious order; (d) to defect (to another country). Hence (e) over the wall adv. phr., escaped from prison; in prison. slang.
a.1917W. Muir Observations of Orderly xiv. 228 He would be observed ‘going over the wall’ or ‘going to stir’ (going to detention prison).
b.1933Amer. Speech VIII. iii. 27/1 Go over the wall, escape. 1936L. Duncan (title) Over the wall. Ibid. vi. 95 Us guys..pull wires to get jobs as guards, and you convicts go over the wall whenever you can. 1963Times 5 June 16/1 He knew it was an unwritten law that an escape extinguished such a debt, and so he decided to ‘go over the wall’. He gave himself up at Clacton-on-Sea. 1974P. B. Yuill Hazell plays Solomon vi. 66 You really think Mancini would've tried to go over the wall?
c.1949M. Baldwin (title) I leap over the wall. A return to the world after twenty-eight years in a convent. 1970Harper's Mag. Apr. 110 Mr. Vizzard was a Jesuit seminarian who yearned for the world, leapt over the wall, and found what he was looking for in Hollywood. 1979‘E. Anthony’ Grave of Truth vii. 190 A bride of Christ, eh? What happens if she jumps over the wall..decides she's had enough of convent life..?
d.1976M. Butterworth Remains to be Seen v. 84 The bloody place [sc. the Foreign Office]..has never been the same since Kim [Philby] went over the wall.
e.1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 85/2 Over the wall, escaped from prison. 1973G. Beare Snake on Grave xxiii. 141 He's out. Over the wall.
21. up the wall: angry, furious; distraught, mad, crazy; esp. in phrs. to climb, run up the wall: to become very angry or distraught; to drive, send (someone) up the wall: to infuriate or put into a frenzy. colloq.
1951S. Kaye-Smith Mrs. Gailey 160 Your mother's running up the wall because he came to dinner. 1953H. Clevely Public Enemy xvii. 101 Old Marks 'll climb up the wall if he hears I closed early. 1956A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Att. ii. ii. 307 You drive me up the wall. What sort of a mess have you got poor Dad into? 1959Observer 21 June 8/8 When they found out he was a Catholic, they were up the wall. 1961New Left Rev. Mar./Apr. 30/1 She was right up the wall, and poor Aunt Ada isn't in any state to help. 1966‘L. Lane’ ABZ of Scouse 40 Sends me up ther bloody wall. 1970New Yorker 3 Oct. 105/1 Success or failure hardly entered into the picture. It was this kind of argument that drove some..executives up the wall. 1975‘E. Lathen’ By Hook or by Crook xiv. 138 The American wife, the sweetie-pie who sends Everett up the wall. 1977Chicago Tribune 2 Oct. vi. 15/2 The prejudice is so acute; that country is up the wall.
22. off the wall (also with hyphens used attrib.): unorthodox, unconventional; instinctive, intuitive, off the cuff. (See also quot. 1966.) Also used advb. U.S. slang.
1966Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) Summer 3 Off the wall, unimpressive... I have a lit. professor who's off the wall. 1968–70Ibid. III–IV. 88 Off the wall, adj. Unusual; unorthodox; ‘crazy’. 1974National Rev. (U.S.) 4 Jan. 47/2 Brian knows how to startle the over-interviewed with off-the-wall questions that get surprising answers: Ever see a ghost? 1975San Francisco Chron. 11 Jan. 12/3 He became suspicious when Dickenson answered extremely complex questions ‘off the wall’. 1976Time 5 Apr. 74, ‘I just thought it was off-the-wall funny’, says Lear. 1977C. McFadden Serial (1978) iv. 14/1 She had decided to play the whole scene off the wall, to just go with the flow... The really authentic thing to do was to act on your impulses. 1977Listener 20 Oct. 498/2 Among the many new sources of cash—it's called ‘off the wall’ fundraising—I have heard about a tribe of Apaches which..invested $2 million in the making of..a western. 1982Penthouse Dec. 84 He started talking off the wall about how he should go to El Salvador.
IV.
23. Short for a. wall-tree. b. wallflower, c. wall butterfly.
a.1707Mortimer Husb. 522 Your Trees being grafted..the next thing to be consider'd, is which are to be for Dwarfs, Walls and Standards.
b.1825R. P. Ward Tremaine i. xvi. 100 There was a regular return of the same flowers..such as walls, and provence roses, convolvolus, and sweet-william.
c.1832J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 12 The Wall (Hipparchia Megæra, Leach). The Brown Wall (H. Phædra, Stephens).
V. attrib. and Comb.
24. a. simple attrib., as wall arch, wall-coping, wall-decoration, wall-front, wall-mosaic, wall-nook, wall-tiling, wall-top; with the meaning ‘set or fixed against a wall’, as wall candlestick, wall-case, wall-clock, wall-cupboard, wall light, wall-map, wall mirror, wall-panel, wall-panelling, wall phone, wall picture, wall-press, wall safe, wall sconce, wall socket, wall switch, wall telephone; with the meaning ‘growing upon or against a wall’, as wall-berry, wall-plant, wall-plum.
1886C. E. Pascoe Lond. To-day xxx. (ed. 3) 268 On the wall of Westminster Hall..there are plainly visible the traces of *wall arches erected by Richard II.
1908[Miss E. Fowler] Betw. Trent & Ancholme 313 Perhaps it had earlier been busy upon the *wall-berries.
1688Holme Armoury iii. 381/2 *Wall or Hanging Candlesticks.
1886Willis & Clark Cambridge III. 181 *Wall-cases were provided, and the collections were removed from the Old Museum.
1891Century Dict., *Wall clock.
1887J. G. Andrew Mem. W. Graham vii. 153 Above the *wall-coping..appeared an endless row of peering sorrow-stricken faces.
1961Times 16 Jan. 13/4 It is furnished throughout with tables, chairs, *wall-cupboards. 1976‘W. Trevor’ Children of Dynmouth ii. 51 The commodious wall-cupboards, the scrubbed wooden table.
1867D. G. Rossetti Let. ? 12 Nov. (1965) II. 643 There are sufficient slight representatives of it [sc. the severed head] on vases and in *wall⁓decoration of classic times. 1935Burlington Mag. June 272/2 The question of the connexion between the carpet patterns and the wall-decoration remains difficult enough. 1964Listener 3 Dec. 883/1 This is a rare opportunity to see an important High Renaissance wall-decoration.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 115 The black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the *wall-front.
1869Bradshaw's Railway Man. XXI. p. xvi (Advt.), *Wall Lights and Mantle Piece Lustres. 1905E. Wharton House of Mirth i. iii. 42 She turned out the wall-lights. 1972Wall light [see penlight, pen-light].
1907T. C. Middleton Geogr. Knowl. Discov. Amer. 20 The *wall-map of the world, painted in his banquet-hall at the Lateran.
1934Webster, *Wall mirror. 1940M. Sadleir Fanny by Gaslight i. ix. 241 She studied herself in a long wall mirror. 1981‘J. Melville’ Murder has Pretty Face i. 20 She could see her reflection in a wall mirror.
1913Eden Ancient Glass 26 Glass *wall-mosaics for interior decoration.
1847C. Brontë J. Eyre iii, The ground-ivy mantling old *wall-nooks.
1880L. Higgin Handbk. Embroidery 62 Design for *wall-panel. By Mr. E. Burne-Jones. 1933Burlington Mag. July 22/1 The absence of graining on the wall panels. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 245 Marked acoustic colouration in a studio may be due to the coincidence of dimensional resonances, to wall-panel resonances, or to frequency-selective excessive absorption of sound.
1880L. Higgin Handbk. Embroidery 62 Design for *wall-panelling or curtains.
1962L. Deighton Ipcress File xxx. 194 The *wall phone rang. 1975‘R. Butler’ Where all Girls are Sweeter vi. 70, I..went over to the wall-phone and dialled.
1895*Wall-picture [see Japanese lantern s.v. Japanese a. and n. b]. 1966J. Derrick Teaching Eng. to Immigrants v. 195 Wall pictures to match those in the book, with suitable captions printed by the teacher..can be put up in the classroom.
1880Archæol. Cant. XIII. 26 The singular thickness of the *wall-piers causes the central body of the crypt to be narrower.
1873M. Somerville Recoll. xviii. 372 The Trachelium cœruleum, a pretty *wall-plant.
1676Shadwell Virtuoso iv. 72, I have observ'd upon a *Wall-plum..at first beginning to turn blue [etc.].
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 285 A *wall-press..is necessary in a corn-barn.
1931W. Faulkner Sanctuary xxiii. 254 The room contained..three over-stuffed chairs, a *wall safe. 1978A. Neave Nuremburg iii. 36 Two wall-safes had been found, one in Bertha's bedroom and one in Gustav's dressing-room.
1954*Wall sconce [see Oscar2 b]. 1974J. Aiken Midnight is Place i. 11 A few candles..burned flickeringly in the wall sconces.
1890Slingo & Brooker Electr. Engin. xvii. 608 A *wall socket..is useful in cases where it is required to place a movable lamp in circuit at one or other of a number of positions. 1977Wall socket [see start button s.v. start n.2 12].
1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night vi. 114 She found the *wall-switch and went down the central corridor of the Annexe. 1981C. Dexter Dead of Jericho xxv. 142 He..turned on the wall switch... But clearly the electricity had been disconnected.
1914*Wall telephone [see extension 9 h]. 1977Rolling Stone 30 June 73/2 Her kitchen is very white—walls, doors, floors, white appliances... And a white wall telephone.
1884Health Exhib. Catal. 83/2 Decorative *wall-tiling.
1849Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 371 It is found under..lichens on *wall-tops.
b. objective, and objective genitive, as wall-builder, wall-building, wall-peeler; wall-like, wall-loving adjs.; instrumental, as wall-bound, wall-fed, wall-girdled, wall-girt, wall-hung, wall-mounted adjs.
1812E. Weeton Let. 15 June in Jrnl. of Governess (1969) II. 22, 7d a yard is the price now usually paid to *wall-builders. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 375 Hannibal..taking his place..among the wall-builders and wonder-workers of Eastern history and legend.
1823Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 221 Paving and *wall-building.
1862W. Barnes Dorset Dial. II. 78 There, in the geärden's *wall-bound square.
1898Athenæum 23 July 137/3 The clinging *wall-fed ivy.
a1930D. H. Lawrence Etruscan Places (1932) 50 Nowhere is far off, in these small *wall-girdled cities.
1883Harper's Mag. Nov. 876 Gray *wall-girt stillness.
1876W. Morris Sigurd 2 The least of its *wall-hung shields. 1970Wall-hung [see modular a. 1 b].
1878Huxley Physiogr. 168 *Wall-like masses are partially detached from the cliffs.
1865Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 120 Walls..of loose, dry stones, affording in the crevices root-space for many *wall-loving plants.
1964R. F. Ficchi Electr. Interference v. 67 The installation, however, is quite important:..it must be located within the shielding or ‘*wall-mounted’ through the shield. 1980Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 21 Sept. 50 (Advt.), Toilets and bidets can be floor standing or wall mounted.
1712Steele Spect. No. 431 ⁋3 These craving Damsels, whether..Coal-Scranchers, *Wall-peelers, or Gravel-diggers.
25. Special comb.: wall-arcade Arch., an arcade (see arcade n. 3) used as a decoration of a wall; hence wall-arcading, the stonework composing a wall-arcade; wall bar, one of a set of parallel bars, attached to the wall of a gymnasium, usu. running from floor to ceiling, on which various exercises are performed; wall-bearing (see quot.); wall bed, a bed which can be folded up against a wall when not in use; wallboard, (a piece of) board, made from wood pulp, fibre, and other materials, used for surfacing walls and ceilings, etc.; wall-border, a garden-border at the foot of a wall; wall-box, (a) an aperture made in or through a wall to accommodate a wall-bearing; (b) a postal collecting box affixed to a wall as distinguished from a pillar-box; wall bracket, a bracket (bracket n. 1 a) which is attached to a wall as a stand or support for a lamp, ornaments, shelves, etc.; † wall-break a., that breaks down walls; wall-casing, the lining or superficial exterior covering of a wall; † wall-chalker (see quot. 1823); hence wall-chalking; wall chart, a chart or poster giving information, often in pictures or diagrams, and designed for display on a wall, esp. in a classroom; wall-clamp, -coal (see quots.); wallcovering, material used to cover and decorate the inside walls of a building (cf. wallpaper 1); wall-crook dial., ? a wooden hook for driving into cob walls; wall-cutting, dock (see quots.); wall-dormer Arch., a dormer whose front is part of the main wall of the building carried up to the required height; wall-earth (see quot.); wall-engine, a small vertical steam engine bolted to a wall; wall-face, (a) the working face in a coal mine; (b) the surface of a wall; † wall-fast a., secure within walls; wall-fight, a siege; wall fish dial., the edible snail, Helix pomatia; wall-fruit, the fruit of trees grown against a wall; also a fruit tree so grown; also attrib., as wall-fruit tree; wall-game, the Eton game of football played ‘at the wall’ (see 4 f); wall garden, a garden surrounded by a wall, or a border planted beside a sheltering wall; wall-grenade, a bombshell thrown from the walls by hand or by means of a small mortar called a hand-mortar (Cent. Dict. 1891); wall-gun, a large hand-gun supported on a tripod or crutch, for firing over a rampart; wall-hangings, tapestry hangings for walls; also, embroidered, woven or other decorative drapery for display on walls; occas. sing.; wall-head Sc., the top of a wall, esp. of a house-wall; also the space on the top of a wall between the roof-beams, used as a receptacle or shelf; also attrib.; wall-hold, the end (of a beam, etc.) which is inserted in a wall as a bearing; wall-hook, † (a) a grappling-hook (obs.); (b) a hook-shaped holdfast for fastening wire, piping, etc. to a wall; † wall lecture Oxford Univ., a lecture delivered, according to statute, by a regent-master (to empty benches); wall-lining, a covering for the interior surface of a wall; wall-nail, a kind of nail made for driving into walls; wall-net, a vertical fishing-net forming the wall of an inclosed space (Cent. Dict.); wall newspaper, (a) a newspaper produced by an educational institution or place of work, typed or hand-written, and displayed on the wall; (b) (esp. in Communist countries) an official newspaper displayed on the wall in public places, esp. in the street; † wall-observer, one who is addicted to reading placards; Wall of Death, a fairground sideshow in which a motor-cyclist uses gravitational force to ride his motor-cycle around the inside walls of a vertical cylinder; wall-painting, a mural, a fresco; wall pass Assoc. Football = one-two (c) s.v. one 33; wall plug: see plug n. 1 c (cf. wall socket, sense 24 above); wall-pocket, (a) a receptacle for small household items, designed to hang on a wall; (b) = wall vase below; wall-post Arch. = pendant n. 6 a; wall-poster, a poster affixed to a public wall; spec. = ta tzu-pao; † wall-rase Sc. [cf. rasen, raising-piece, -plate] = wall plate; † wall-reared a. = wall-sided; † wall-reeve, an official charged with keeping embankments in repair; wall-rib Arch. (see quots. 1835–50); also attrib.; wall-rock Mining, the rock forming the walls of a vein; wall-saltpetre (see quot.); wall-shaft Arch., in engaged wall-shaft, a shaft or column partly let into the wall (cf. engaged column); wall-side, (a) the side of a wall; (b) the side of a pavement, etc., where there is a wall (also attrib.); wall-sided a., having perpendicular sides like a wall; wall space, an expanse of unbroken wall surface, esp. one regarded as an area for displaying pictures, etc.; wall-strap (see quot.); wall-string, the string-board of a staircase which is next the wall; wall system U.S., ‘a set of shelves often with cabinets or bureaus that can be variously arranged along a wall’ (Webster's 9,000 Words); wall-tent, a tent with perpendicular sides; wall-tie, each of the pieces of iron, slate, or other material used to bind together the two parts of a hollow wall; wall-tile, (a) a tile used for lining a wall; † (b) north., a brick as distinguished from a roofing tile; † wall-tooth, a cheek-tooth, grinder; wall-tower, a tower forming part of a fortified wall (Cent. Dict.); † wall-town Sc., a walled or fortified town; wall-tree, a fruit-tree planted against and trained upon a wall; also attrib.; wall unit, a piece of furniture consisting of various sections and compartments such as shelves and cupboards, and designed to stand against a wall; wall vase, a vase with one flat side allowing it to be hung on a wall; wall-wash, liquid distemper applied to the surface of a wall; wallwasher, a type of lighting fixture designed to ‘wash’ a wall with light (see quot. 1983); wall-wise adv., after the manner of a wall; wall-work, † (a) work done in building a wall (obs.); (b) a defensive work consisting of walls. Also wallpaper, wall-piece, wall-plat, wall-plate, wall-stone.
1860G. E. Street in Archæol. Cant. III. 133 The *wall-arcades in the two churches.
1863Sir G. Scott Glean. Westm. Abb. (ed. 2) 33 The spandrels over the *wall-arcading are exquisitely beautiful. a1878― Lect. Archit. I. 97.
1903Handbk. Physical Training (Admiralty) i. 53 The men are placed with one side towards, and at one pace from the *Wall Bars. 1973M. Russell Double Hit ii. 18 I'll be getting back to the wallbars.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wall-bearing, a bearing for receiving a shaft when entering or passing through a wall.
1913Maclean's Mag. Oct. 78/1 The Pacific *Wall Bed is sanitary in every respect. 1974Wall bed [see Murphy3].
1925(title) U.S. Government master specification for gypsum *wall board. (U.S. Bureau of Standards.) 1933Archit. Rev. LXXIII. p. lviii, The group of materials commonly known as wallboards, but more correctly termed building⁓boards, may..be classified in five categories:—(1) fibre boards..(2) laminated boards..(3) wood pulp boards..(4) plaster boards..(5) composite boards. 1942[see storyboard s.v. story n.1 9]. 1962A. Lurie Love & Friendship iv. 59 Burned, sodden chunks of wallboard lay about. 1978Cornish Guardian 27 Apr. 34/6 (Advt.), Carpet Tiles. Tools. Wallboards.
1707Mortimer Husb. 461 They are..transplanted into some *Wall border towards the South and East. 1851in Beck's Florist 128 A shrubbery or wall-border some four or five feet broad.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wall-box. 1887D. A. Low Machine Draw. (1892) 34 A neat appearance is given to the opening..by building into the wall a wall box.
1909Webster, *Wall bracket. 1926L. Elmhirst Notebk. in M. Young Elmhirsts of Dartington (1982) xii. 295 We eliminated the wall brackets and agreed upon..ceiling lights. 1939[see standard n. 16 c]. 1951W. Faulkner Requiem for Nun i. ii. 53 Floor-lamp, wall-bracket lamps, a door left enters from the hall. 1976Gramophone Sept. 516/2 The small size can be easily accommodated particularly if the speakers are mounted on wall brackets.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Schism 727 Fell, *wall⁓break (all break) Famine..Howls hideously.
1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1871) I. 28 *Wall-casings of rich, polished marble.
1823‘Jon Bee’ Dict. Turf, *Wall⁓chalkers—fellows who..scrawl balderdash upon garden walls... Others chalk up their trades—as ‘try Warren's blacking’ [etc.]. 1829T. Hook Bank to Barnes 95 The Bill-Sticker's Assistant and Wall-Chalker's Vade-Mecum. 1932Dylan Thomas Sel. Lett. (1966) 5 We're over-ripe, we night⁓walkers, cunt-stalkers, wall-chalkers.
1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xli. 409 Lady Dedlock, the *wall-chalking and the street-crying would come on directly.
1958S. Hyland Who goes Hang? xl. 189 He was..examining a *wall-chart which depicted..the working..of a bicycle. 1980Wall chart [see snake n. 4 f].
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wall-clamp, a brace or tie to hold walls together, or the two parts of a double-wall, to prevent spreading.
1886J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 70 *Wall⁓coal, breast coal; the middle division of three in a seam, the other two being termed top coal and ground coal.
1970Times 11 Dec. 16/4 The *wallcovering on three walls is glossy yellow p.v.c. 1979Tucson Mag. Apr. 73/2 (Advt.), We offer a multitude of wall coverings and coordinating fabrics.
1869Blackmore Lorna D. xxxviii, I worked..in the copse of young ash,..making spars to keep for thatching, *wall-crooks to drive into the cob, [etc.].
1886J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 70 *Wall cutting, side cutting or shearing the solid coal in opening out working places; trimming the sides of a sinking pit.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §925 The *wall docks (plugs of wood) are not to be more than 16 inches apart.
1886Willis & Clark Cambridge III. 551 The roof dormers very soon became *wall-dormers, rising in a line with the main walls of the buildings.
1723Phil. Trans. XXXII. 420 The lower half of the Layers of Fullers-Earth, they call the *Wall-Earth.
1839Ure Dict. Arts, etc. 982 The instant each corve arrives, from the *wall face,..it is lifted from the tram by a crane. a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) II. 141 In some of the Byzantine remains..they have architecturalised by mouldings and enrichments only just so much of the arch-stones as was needful for beauty, and left the rest to go as mere wall-face.
1593Rites & Mon. Durham (Surtees) 53 She..laid those two without the doore that before was maid *wall-fast within her house.
1850Grote Greece ii. lxiii. (1862) V. 457 Alkibiadês warned the assembled seamen that they must prepare for a sea-fight, a land-fight, and a *wall-fight, all at once.
1950O. Blakeston Pink Ribbon v. 59 They ate snails..in Gloucester, and they called them ‘*wall fish’. 1980Times 2 Oct. 13/3 The taste of an open mushroom grilled with garlic, parsley and butter is so splendid, and superior to snails given the same treatment, that I would never now dream of bothering to cook that delicacy known in the Mendips as wallfish.
1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 266 Nail and trim *Wall-fruits. 1690Lond. Gaz. No. 2550/4 Good Gardens and Orchards planted with all sorts of choice Wall-fruit. a1700Evelyn Diary 24 Mar. 1688, The wall fruit trees are most exquisitely nail'd and train'd. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 582 The wall⁓fruits of Britain include all those which in the central districts of England require the aid of a wall to bring them to perfection.
1883Sat. Rev. 1 Dec. 695/2 The *Wall Game [at Eton].
1780J. Woodforde Diary 26 Apr. (1924) I. 280 Busy in painting some boarding in my *Wall Garden. 1936Discovery Mar. 86/2 Wall Garden, 385 feet long, first planted in 1935 [at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden].
1812P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 63 We then fired with slugs (Colonel Douglas with a Spanish barrel, and I with a huge *wall gun). 1819Scott Leg. Montrose x, They found themselves..exposed to a fire both of musketry and wall-guns. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. iv. V. 473 Wall⁓guns brought from Cüstrin.
1896L. Eckenstein Woman under Monasticism 233 The great work of her life was the manufacture of *wall-hangings. 1967E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage i. 9 If the finished piece of embroidery is to be seen from a distance, as for instance a wall hanging. 1979Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. j 5/7 (Advt.), They've just had a new shipment of Oaxacan Rugs and Wallhangings. 1983Listener 30 June 17/1 By 1972 I needed a small pantechnicon to convey all my books on macrobiotic cookery, my plants, wall⁓hangings and floor cushions.
a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) II. 83 [They] laid him on the *wall heid, that all might sie him deid. 1636in Scottish Jrnl. Topogr. (1848) II. 11/1 Item, for ten hondreth of diffeit [= divot] riggine and wae-heid towrs [= turfs]. 1898E. W. Hamilton Mawkin of Flow xvii. 226 Here, Rob, rax me that bit rope that's lying in the wall-head yonder.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §919 The inside lintels..are..to have at least 12 inches of bond (or *wall-hold) on each end. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 170 The steps should be droved 3 feet 6 inches clear of the wall, with 6 inches of wall hold.
1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 739 A *wall-hook or drag; Lupus, harpago. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 408 Fastening the pipes to the wall by means of wall-hooks of iron. 1882Christy Joints 194 A strip of 5 lb. lead,..secured along one edge to the wall with wall hooks.
1662Wood Life 22 Dec. (O.H.S.) I. 464 Wheras they were left of after the king was restored and *wall lectures onlie read in their places, declamations were now setled and wall lectures too. 1691― Ath. Oxon. (1721) II. 796 He did also sometimes repair to the Ordinaries (commonly called Wall Lectures from the paucity of Auditors). 1767J. Penn By Way of Prevention To Clergy p. i, Dry Morals and musty Doctrines have turned Sermons into Wall Lectures.
1860G. E. Street in Archæol. Cant. III. 132 A great deal of chalk is used for *wall lining. 1892Dict. Archit. (Archit. Publ. Soc.), Wall-lining, a thin internal wall of brick for keeping dry the interior surface of a house in exposed places.
1344–5Exch. Acc. K.R. 492. 24 (MS.), In Ml de *Walnail empt. vjd. ob. 1864Atkinson Stanton Grange 224 Next stood a box of shreds and wall-nails.
1935N. Mitchison We have been Warned iii. 295 She had been shown the *wall newspapers of factories and schools. 1937E. Snow Red Star over China viii. v. 293 There was also a wall newspaper in every club, and a committee of soldiers was responsible for keeping it up to date. 1966J. Derrick Teaching Eng. to Immigrants vi. 213 Project work involving the use of aids and apparatus..such as preparing a broadcast or TV programme or involving the class or group in the production of a wall newspaper should be considered. 1978China Now Mar./Apr. 19/3 They keenly contested for the miserable prizes offered in competitions between groups and individuals in sport, literacy, public health, wall newspapers, and ‘factory efficiency’. 1979N.Y. Rev. Bks. 25 Oct. 40/3 The hero stands in Yuryatin reading the wall-newspapers.
1673[R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 76 The avenue-readers, the *wall-observers, and those that are acquainted with stall-learning.
1946G. Tyrwhitt-Drake Eng. Circus & Fair Ground xviii. 210 Undoubtedly the most thrilling side-show was the ‘*Wall of Death’, first seen here..in 1928. 1959Listener 26 Feb. 371/2 It might..spin quickly round the steep hollow like a rider on the Wall of Death. 1976‘W. Trevor’ Children of Dynmouth i. 13 The Hall of a Million Mirrors and the Tunnel of Love and Alfonso's and Annabella's Wall of Death were in the process of erection.
1688*Wall painting [see fresco n. 2]. 1849Jrnl. Brit. Archaeol. Assoc. IV. 92 Church decoration of this kind is..not unfrequently brought to light; but specimens of domestic internal wall⁓painting are of much greater rarity. 1898A. Beardsley Let. 14 Jan. (1970) 424 I'm afraid good books on the wall paintings of Pompeii are costly and beyond my balance. 1933Burlington Mag. Oct. 146/2 These..portraits..brought Holbein immediate fame and the order to decorate the King's Privy Chamber in Whitehall Palace with wall-paintings. 1964W. L. Goodman Hist. Woodworking Tools 132 A wall-painting from Pompeii.
1958Mod. Soccer (Football Assoc.) v. 41 In Fig. 38 the LB [Left Back], sensing the possibility of a ‘*wall-pass’, quickly backs away. 1973Times 6 Jan. 7/5 The ‘wall pass’, ‘one-two’, touch play, ‘push and run’, call it what you will, we developed it at Tottenham.
1888*Wall plug [see plug n. 1 c]. 1914Batstone Electr.-Light Fitting 122 Wall Plugs. 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File xxv. 166 There was a big two kilowatt electric fire plugged into a wall point... It was the work of a minute to switch on the wall plug.
1880Scribner's Monthly Apr. 921/1 The family comb..occupied a convenient *wall-pocket at one side of the small kitchen mirror. 1947E. Bishop in Nation (N.Y.) 22 Feb. 215/1 The eighty watt bulb..Lighting as well on heads Of tacks in the wall paper, On a paper wall-pocket, Violet⁓embossed, glistening With mica flakes. 1957Mankowitz & Haggar Conc. Encycl. Eng. Pott. & Porc. 125/1 Articles for domestic use..included..punch-bowls, wall-pockets and plaques. 1971L. A. Boger Dict. World Pott. & Porc. 365/1 Wall Pocket, in ceramics; a decorative object made of faïence, porcelain or pottery, having the shape of a vase, with one side being flat so that it can be hung on a wall. It is also called a wall vase.
1871T. Morris Brit. Carpentry 85 The situation of the *wall posts would seem to indicate a purpose of concentrating the weight.
1962E. Cleaver in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 14/2 The mass media..television,..illustrated *wall posters [etc.]. 1966China Q. Oct.–Dec. 3 Within a week or two..20,000 ‘sightseers’ were visiting Peking University each day, partly to read the wall-posters, partly to watch and abuse the ‘criminals’. 1977‘S. Leys’ Chinese Shadows (1978) ii. 70 Huge wall posters placed at random throughout the city. (‘Increase our Vigilance and Protect our Fatherland!’) 1979‘J. le Carré’ Smiley's People xxvii. 322 Wall posters offering cheap ski holidays.
1523Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. V. 220 Item, for ij *wall rasis put undre the cuppill feit,..Item, for v corbalis of stane..for bering to the tua wall rasis.
1627Capt. J. Smith Sea Gram. xi. 53 We say a Ship is..*wall reared when she is right built vp, after shee comes to her bearing.
1316Placitorum Abbrev. (1811) 352 Et dicunt qđ idem dñs & curia sua de Stebenhethe..ordinavit..duos homines qui vocantur *Walreves ad supervidendum wallias fossata seweras & gutteras praedicta.
1835R. Willis Archit. Mid. Ages vii. 82 If the compartment be bounded by a wall as in the case of the clerestory, the rib which is placed at the intersection of the vault with the wall may be called the *Wall Rib. 1850T. Inkersley Inquir. Archit. France 309 The union of the wall-rib-shaft..with the spring of the window-archway.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 349 On it a shaft has been sunk..showing a continuous vein with well-defined *wall-rock.
1911Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 94/2 *Wall-saltpetre or lime saltpetre, calcium nitrate, Ca (NO2)2, is found as an efflorescence on the walls of stables; it is now manufactured in large quantities.
1865G. E. Street Gothic Archit. Spain ix. 191 There are three-quarter engaged *wall⁓shafts between the windows.
c1400Destr. Troy 861 Sho went vp wightly by a *walle syde To the toppe of a toure. 1887P. M'Neill Blawearie 176 Many alterations on the roof and wall-sides would have to be made. 1933Auden Poems (ed. 2) 80 Climbing over to wall-side of bed. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xii. 266 The old custom of making grottoes at the wall-side edge of the pavement.
1711W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 165 *Wall-sided. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780). 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 180 A deep wall-sided valley. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxix, She was a good, substantial ship,..wall-sided and kettle-bottomed. 1866Huxley Prehist. Rem. Caithn. 88 The transverse contour of the skull inclines to be pentagonal and wall-sided.
1889in Cent. Dict., *Wall space. 1898G. B. Shaw Arms & Man iii. 47 The rest of the wall space being occupied by trophies of war and the chase. 1978Lancashire Life Sept. 101/1 True, a new library is being built in Stanley Road, where wall-space for pictures will be made available, but there will be no gallery proper, and no museum whatsoever.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §925 The *wall-straps (battens, or pieces of quartering on which to nail the laths) are to be 1 inch and a quarter thick.
1849*Wall string [see string n. 26].
1978Detroit Free Press 2 Apr. 7b/1 (Advt.), Westwood *wall system from Southern is a handsome backdrop for any room and provides invaluable storage. 1980Christian Sci. Monitor (Midwestern ed.) 4 Dec. 17/3 Wall systems are the fastest-growing category of furnishings.
1862T. W. Higginson Army Life (1870) 19 Two *wall-tents being placed end to end, for office and bedroom. 1894Outing XXIV. 86/1 We had a single wall-tent, ten by twelve.
1884Health Exhib. Catal. 81/2 Section of Hollow Brick Wall, showing our patent cast and wrought *wall-ties.
1358York Mercers etc. (Surtees) 15 Pro xx mille de *Walteghill, vj li. 1465in Paston Lett. II. 224 A thousand waltyle that his fadir had fro ye seide Williams wyfes place. 1790Grose Provinc. Gloss. Suppl., Wall-tiles, bricks; opposed to tiles, called Thack-tiles. North. 1882Christy Joints 68 Wall tiles are sometimes bedded in fine plaster.
c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 748/7 Hoc maxillare, a *walthothe. (? Hence)1847Halliwell, Wall-tooth, a large double-tooth.
c1470Henry Wallace viii. 699 This war the best of all, To kepe our strynth off castell and off *wall toun. c1480Henryson Death & Man 7 Wal-townis, castellis, towiris, neuir so wicht, may nocht resist quhill it be at his hert.
1657Austen Fruit Trees i. 66 As concerning the distance of *Wal-trees. 1786Abercrombie Gard. Assist. 42 For wall-tree cherries, plums, pears, etc. allot a portion of the earliest..varieties for south walls. 1844Zoologist II. 493 Another [nest] was completed in an adjoining wall-tree.
1962Listener 11 Jan. 65/1 Making the best use of up-to-date methods, such as the prefabrication of large *wall units, which are being successfully used already in half the European countries. 1979A. B. Emary Woodworking xxiv. 104 Many of the units purchased from stores are made from melamine-covered chipboard and since it is easy to obtain the home woodworker will find this material useful when making objects such as wall units and shelving.
1889in Cent. Dict., *Wall vase. 1937Burlington Mag. Dec. p. xx/i, The book contains many valuable hints..such as..the advantages of wall-vases. 1979I. Webb Compl. Guide Flower & Foliage Arrangement vii. 96/2 (caption) Two wall vases hold flowers which suit their differing qualities and appearance.
1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 511 We discovered arsenic in large quantity in the green unsized *wall-wash of her own sitting-room.
1966D. Phillips Lighting 36 The principal lighting method is by *wall washer fittings recessed into the suspended ceiling. 1983Homes & Gardens Nov. 138 Wall-washers have half the aperture closed off and their function is to give an even illumination of one wall surface from skirting to ceiling without lighting the floor.
1596S. Finche Let. 26 Feb., in Ducarel Hist. Croydon (1783) App. 155 We have made up that angle..*wall-wyse with stone and morter.
c1000ælfric Hom. (Thorpe) II. 166 Þa ᵹebroðra eodon to ðam *weall-weorce. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. A vj b, Our dutie hadd bene to direct the buildyng of our Religion by this lyne and leuell, and to ramme fast the wallworkes hereof with this cemente and morter. 1837Penny Cycl. IX. 468/1 Other internal walls..communicate with wall-works running east and west.
b. In the names of animals frequenting or living in walls, as wall-bee (see quot.); wall-bird, a dial. name of the Spotted Flycatcher, Muscicapa grisola; wall-brown, a common British butterfly, Satyrus megæra = brown wall (see 19 c); wall-butterfly (see quot.); wall-carpet, a variety of the carpet-moth (see carpet n. 5); wall-creeper (see quot. 1888); wall-fly (see quot.); wall-gecko (see quot.); wall-lizard, a lizard of the species Lacerta muralis; wall-louse, † (a) the bed-bug, Cimex lectularius; (b) dial. the woodlouse; † wall-newt, ? = wall-lizard; wall-usher, a variety of moth (see quot.); wall-wasp (see quot.).
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 94 The *Wall Bees are so called, because they make their nests in walls.
1848Zoologist VI. 2186 The spotted flycatcher is the ‘*wall-bird’.
1846Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 171 Not a single specimen has been observed of the..*Wall Brown, or the Dark Green Aglaia.
1860W. S. Coleman Brit. Butterfl. 98 The *Wall Butterfly (Lasiommata Megæra). Ibid. 99 It is called the Wall Butterfly from its frequent habit of choosing a roadside wall for a perch.
1832J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 111 The *Wall Carpet (Alcis muraria Curtis).
1667C. Merrett Pinax 177 Picus murarius, the Creeper, or *Wall-Creeper. 1678[see spider-catcher 2]. 1764G. Edwards Glean. Nat. Hist. iii. 284 The Wall-creeper of Surinam. 1888Newton in Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 534/2 Allied to the Tree-Creeper [Certhia]..is the genus Tichodroma, the single member of which is the Wall-Creeper (T. muraria) of the Alps and some other mountainous parts of Europe and Asia.
1653Walton Angler ii. 54 Nay, sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly; as the Ant-fly, the Flesh-fly, or *Wall-fly [cf. ed. 3 (1661) 63, the black Bee that breeds in clay walls].
1886Cassell's Dict. s.v. Platydactylus, P. fascicularis or muralis is the *Wall Gecko.
c1880Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 274 The lively little *Wall Lizard, Lacerta muralis.
1540Septem Ling. Dict. D vj, Cimices..*wallyse. 1598–1657 Wall louse [see punaise]. 1673[see chinch n.1]. 1693S. Dale Pharmacol. 531 Cimex..The Wall-Louse or Bugg. 1899Cumbld. Gloss., s.v. Kirk louse, Wall louse, Slater, woodlouse, millipede. Oniscidæ.
1605Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 135 Poore Tom, that eates..the Tod-pole, the *wall-Neut, and the water.
1708Brit. Apollo No. 88. 2/1 Like the Body of a Red *Wall-Spider.
1832J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 102 The *Wall Usher (Anisopteryx æscularia, Stephens) appears on palings and trunks of trees the middle of March.
1881Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 372 The *Wall Wasp (Odynerus parietum)..may be almost constantly seen haunting sunny walls during the months of June and July.
c. In the names of plants growing on or by walls and in dry or stony places, as wall barley, the wild barley, Hordeum murinum; also rye-grass, Lolium perenne; wall bugloss, a plant of the genus Lycopsis; wall cabbage (see quot.); wall-cress, the genus Arabis; also (see quot. 1796); wall fern, the common evergreen fern, Polypodium vulgare; wall gillyflower, the wallflower; wall grass, the stonecrop, Sedum acre; wall hawkweed, Hieracium murorum; wall moss, (a) the yellow lichen, Parmelia parietaria (Cent. Dict.); (b) Sedum acre; (c) see quot. 1855; wall mustard = wall-rocket; wall pellitory = pellitory 2; † wall penny grass, wall pennywort = pennywort 1; wall pepper, Sedum acre; wall pie = wall rue; wall-rocket, Diplotaxis tenuifolia; wall rue, a small fern, Asplenium Ruta-muraria; wall sage, † (a) a species of Sideritis; cf. glidewort, ironwort; (b) = pellitory 2 (Eng. Dial. Dict.); wall speedwell, Veronica arvensis; wall spleenwort = wall rue; wall weed, ? mother-of-thousands, Linaria Cymbalaria. Also wallflower, wallwort.
1548Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 43 Phenicea or Hordeum murinum of Plinie, is the *wal Barley, whiche groweth on mud walles. 1597Gerarde Herbal i. li. 71 Red Darnell is called..in Latin Lolium rubrum: and Lolium Murinum: in English Wall Barley. 1763Mills Pract. Husb. III. 333 The Wall barley, or way bennet, as some people improperly term it. 1866Treas. Bot. I. 597/1 We all remember how in our youth we put inverted spikes of the Wall Barley up our sleeves and found them travel to our shoulders.
1650[W. Howe] Phytol. Brit. 36 Echium alterum, Dod. Lycopsis Anglica, Lob. in agris siccioribus & muris. *Wall Buglosse. 1860Mayne Expos. Lex., Wall-Bugloss. Common name for the Lycopsis.
1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 593 [Brassica muralis] Sisymbrium murale. Linn... *Wall Cabbage. Old walls and rubbish.
Ibid. 589 Turritis hirsuta..*Wall Cress. 1866Treas. Bot. 83/2 Wall-cress, the English name [of Arabis] has similar reference to the usual place of growth.
1525Grete Herbal cccxlix. (1529) T v, De polytryco. *Walfarne. 1639O. Wood Alph. Bk. Secrets 214 Walferne.
1548Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 80 Viola alba... There are diuerse sortes... One is called in english Cheiry, Hertes ease or *wal Gele⁓floure, it groweth vpon the walles, and..hath yealowe floures. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 94 The butter-flower of the meadow, and the wall gilly-flower.
1882H. Friend Devonsh. Plant-n., *Wall Grass. Sedum acre, L.
1829Loudon Encycl. Plants (1836) 674 *Wall hawkweed.
1855Anne Pratt Flowering Pl. II. 324 *Wall-moss (Dicranum murale). 1886Britten & Holland Plant-n., Wall Moss. Sedum acre L.—N. and E. Yks. 1904*Wall-mustard [see wall-rocket].
1562Turner Herbal ii. 169, I knowe no English name for it [Vmbilicus veneris]: but lest it should be wythout a name I call it *wall penny grasse.
1578Lyte Dodoens i. xxv. 37 Cotyledon vera. *Wall Pennywurte. 1579,1756[see pennywort 1]. 1855Anne Pratt Flowering Pl. II. 320 Cotyledon Umbilicus (Wall Pennywort).
1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxxvii. 115 Of Houselyke and Sengreene... The fourth is called..in English Stone Crop,..& of some it is called *Wall Pepper. 1861S. Thomson Wild Flowers iii. (ed. 4) 238 We find the Sedum acre, or yellow stone-crop, often called wall-pepper.
1855Anne Pratt Flowering Pl. I. 152 Sinapis tenuifolia (*Wall-rocket). 1904Westm. Gas. 13 Oct. 10/1 This is the wall-rocket or narrow-leaved wall-mustard (Diplotaxis tenui⁓folia), a glaucous plant, one to one and a half feet high, with pale lemon-yellow flowers.
1548Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 86 Saluia vita or Ruta muralis..maye be called in english Stone Rue, or *wal Rue. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece i. iv. 243 Leaves of Wall-Rue 4 Ounces. 1906J. Vaughan Wild-Fl. Selborne 92 The little wall-rue fern.
1548Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 73 Sideritis prima..may be called in englishe *walsage or stonisage. 1651J. F[reake] Agrippa's Occ. Philos. i. xvii. 40 Geese, Ducks, and such like watery fowle, cure themselves with the Hearb called wall-sage [L. herba sideritide].
1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 13 Veronica arvensis..*Wall Speedwell.
1866Swinburne St. Dorothy Poems & Ballads 288 Green blossom cleaves To the green chinks, and lesser *wall-weed sweet, Kissing the crannies that are split with heat.
Add:[I.] [5.] b. the wall: the point of onset of extreme fatigue reached by long-distance and marathon runners, at which the body's stores of energy are virtually exhausted. Freq. in phr. to hit the wall. colloq.
1974Marathon Handbk. 22 More commonly, the collapse point is called ‘the wall’ (which one runs into). 1977J. F. Fixx Compl. Bk. Running viii. 99 ‘In thirty-five marathons,’ Nina Kuscsik told me, ‘I've never hit the wall. I get tired, but I can always keep going.’ 1984Runner (U.S.) Oct. 144/1 It was his first marathon... At 20 miles he was wondering where the wall was, but he never found it. 1988Road Racing & Training 87/2, I hit no perceptible ‘wall’ during the last few miles but I experienced a dull ache in my stomach.
▪ II. † wall, n.2 Sc. Obs.
Also 6 vall, wal.
[var. spelling (with silent ll) of waw n.]
A wave (of the sea).
c1480Wyntoun's Cron. i. vii. 399 (MS. E.) Of wellis wawerit wallis wid. c1480Henryson Paddock & Mouse 180 The watter is the warld, ay welterand With mony wall of trubulatioun. c1500Lancelot 1316 Thi schip, that goth apone the stormy vall. 1513Douglas æneis iii. viii. 60 Within the havin goith loune, but wind or wall. 1549Compl. Scot. 39 The suelland vallis of the brym seye. 1599A. Hume Hymns vii. 89 The waltering wals, and raging windie blast.
▪ III. † wall, n.3 Obs.
Also 7 whall.
[Back-formation from wall-eye.]
eyes of wall (nonce-phrase) = ‘wall eyes’: see wall eye. Also attrib. or adj., as in wall speck; wall-coloured adj.
1611Cotgr. s.v. Oeil, Oeil de chevre, a whall, or ouer⁓white eye. 1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 27 The apple [of the eye] is half blew, and all about wall-coloured. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 424 The Beast was sturdy large and tall, With Mouth of Meal and Eyes of Wall. 1706Lond. Gaz. No. 4285/8 Stolen.., a white Horse, with..a wall Speck in one of his Eyes.
▪ IV. wall, n.4 Naut.|wɔːl|
Short for wall-knot.
1834Marryat P. Simple vi, ‘How is this to be finished off sir?’ inquired a sailor of the boatswain. ‘Why,..it must be with a double wall.’ c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 30 Make a single wall. Ibid. 56 A ‘double wall’ or deck stopper-knot is made..close up to the wall. 1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Wall and Crown. This knot should be finished with a crown.
▪ V. wall, n.5|wɔːl|
= lablab.
1884De Candolle's Orig. Cultiv. Plants 346 Lablab, or Wall..Dolichos Lablab, Linnæus. This species is much cultivated in India and tropical Africa. 1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 322 ‘Wall’ of India (Dolichos Lablab, L.) A climbing perennial largely cultivated in the Tropics for its unpalatable seeds.
▪ VI. wall, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 1 weallan, 2–5 walle-n, 7– wall. pa. tense 1 wéol(l, 3 weol, wul, 4 wel; weak 4 wallede, 7– walled.
[OE. weallan redupl. strong vb. (pa. tense wéoll, pa. pple. ᵹeweallen) corresp. to OFris. walla to well up (WFris. walle to boil), MFlem. wallen (Kilian) to well up (mod.Flem. to boil), OS. wallan str. vb., to boil up, gush forth (MLG. wallen), OHG. wallan strong vb., to boil, gush forth (MHG. wallen str., mod.G. weak, to boil, be agitated, swarm, etc.).
The transitive uses do not occur in OE., and as they are found only with the weak conjugation, it is possible that they descend not from OE. weallan, but from wællan var. of wiellan, węllan well v.; cf. mod. Sc. wall (well n.) repr. OE. wælla var. of wiella. The transitive senses below are closely paralleled by those of well v. and its equivalents in other Teut. langs.
The Teut. *wallan (:—*waln-) redupl. vb. with the sense ‘to boil, bubble up’ is confined to WGer.; but a cogn. and synonymous *wellan strong vb. exists in ON. vella (vall, ollenn), MSw. välla strong vb. (Sw. välla, Da. vælde weak vbs.), and a causative type *walljan wk. vb. in ON. vella (Sw. välla) to boil (trans.), to weld = MHG. wellen, OE. wiellan: see well, weld vbs. For other Teut. derivatives of the root in the same specific sense see walm, well n.; cf. also Goth. wulan to be fervent. It is probable that the sense ‘to boil, bubble, well up’ is developed from the sense ‘to roll’, which belongs to the root *wel- in Teut. and Indogermanic (see wallow v.); for the form *well- cf. OHG. wella roller, axle (MHG., mod.G. welle), wellan strong vb. trans. to roll.]
†1. intr. Of a liquid: To boil. Also of a person: To be in boiling liquid. Obs.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 358 Do ofer fyr, awyl; þonne hit wealle, sing iii. pater noster. c1200Moral Ode 249 (Trin. MS.) Þar is pich þat afre walleð [MS. Egerton wealð]. c1200Ormin 10507 To bærnnenn & to wallenn Wiþþ deofless dun in hellegrund. c1250Song Passion 45 in O.E. Misc. 198 Wallen in helle dep nere neuere so swet wit alle.
†b. fig. To ‘boil’ with passion. (Cf. walling ppl. a.) Obs.
Beowulf 2113 Hreðer inne weoll, Þonne he wintrum frod worn ᵹemunde. a1225Leg. Kath. 1926 Þe king weol al inwið of wreððe. a1225Ancr. R. 118 Þeo hwule þet te heorte walleð wiðinnen of wreððe, nis þer no riht dom.
†2. Of liquids: To bubble up; to well up, flow abundantly. Of the sea, waves: To boil up, rage.
c893ælfred Oros. iv. iii, Mon ᵹeseah weallan blod of eorþan. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 167 At eche wunde wul ut atter. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 662 As þe water deþ vp walle. c1315Shoreham Poems iii. 28 Syker þou myȝt be of þat lond Þar melke and hony walleþ. c1330King of Tars 1087 Þe blod out of his wounde wel. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 71 Venim or vernisch or vinegre, I trouwe, Walleþ in my wombe or waxeþ, ich wene. c1450Mirk's Festial 9 Out of þe whech tombe manna and oyle walleþ out yfere.
fig.1449Pecock Repr. iv. iii. 432 Thes..causis, out of whiche wallen the seid yuelis.
†b. To swarm (with vermin). Obs.
c1000ælfric Saint's Lives iv. 212 On blindum cwearterne..þær manna lic laᵹon, þe wæran ær acwealde..þa weollon eall maðon. c1050Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 531/22 Scatens, weallende [gl. Aldh. Laud. Virg. (poet.) lxxxix, scatens vermibus]. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 235 He wallede ful of wormes [L. vermibus scatens].
3. trans. To boil. Cf. well v.
See pot-walling, quot. 1456 s.v. pot-walloping.
c1310S. Margaret 287 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 232 Takeþ and walleþ oyle and lete opon hir renne.
b. absol. To boil brine in salt-making.
1600[Implied in waller2]. 1669Phil. Trans. IV. 1063 They seldom Wall, that is, make Salt, in above 6 Houses at a time.
4. intr. To weld, become welded; fig. to blend. Cf. well, weld vbs.
1629Sir W. Mure True Crucifixe 2692 Pleasure in Him and fleshlie pleasure fall So foull at strife, they can, nor mixe, nor wall.
▪ VII. wall, v.2|wɔːl|
Pa. tense and pple. walled |wɔːld|.
[OE. *weallian (only in pa. pple. ᵹeweallod), f. weall wall n.1 Cf. LG. wallen.]
1. trans. To furnish with a wall.
a. To enclose, surround, or divide with a wall or walls; to provide (a town, etc.) with fortified walls.
[c1000ælfric Num. xiii. 29 Micele burᵹa þær sind and mærlice ᵹeweallode.] c1250Gen. & Ex. 435 He ches a stede toward eden, And..Wallede a burȝ, e-no bi name. a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 138, I saugh a Gardin.., Enclos it was, and walled wel, With hye walles enbatailled. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 339 Þe citee of Ȝork, þat was not ful i-walled. 1471Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) 271 Laomedon the kynge of Troye was besy to walle and mure his cyte with mures and towres. 1589Bigges Summarie Drake's W. Ind. Voy. 39 The same [Priorie] being walled with a wall of stone. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. iii. 14 Close by the battell, ditch'd, & wall'd with turph. 1643R. Baker Chron. 13 King Athelstan..new walled and beautifyed the City of Exceter. 1794Trans. Soc. Arts XII. 201 The expence of walling the forty-two acres was seventy-eight pounds. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes iii, The House of Correction..is not walled, like other prisons, but is palisaded round about with..stakes. 1849Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 295 Some lands near the river..have risen immensely in value, being now trenched and walled. 1881Proc. R. Geog. Soc. (N.S.) III. 31 The town of Shonga..is walled and ditched.
b. with about, round about, round. to wall in, to enclose with a wall. to wall off, wall out, to shut off or out with a wall.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1169 Þe vif tounes of þe vif pors he let walli aboute. 1375Barbour Bruce ii. 220 Till Perth then went thai..That then wes wallyt all about. c1420Wyntoun Cron. v. 1303 (Cott.) He gert wal in al þat stede Qwhar Criste his passion tholit of dede. 1481Caxton Reynard v. (Arb.) 10 They..wente in a yerde whiche was walled round a boute. c1530Tindale Jonas Prol. B vij, Enuironed it and walled it aboute on euery syde with y⊇ feare of god. 1600Surflet Country Farm vii. xix. 834 Their parkes therefore must bee walled about. 1633Stow's Surv. 761 He round walled the Church-yard. 1691J. Gibson in Archæologia XII. 189 The garden not being walled about they have less summer fruit. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 564 It was a low marshy Ground, wall'd round with a Stone-wall. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 58 A gravel-walk that was walled in on the left hand. 1799Wellington Let. Lieut. Col. Close 21 Dec., in Gurwood Disp. (1844) I. 47 What I should propose would be to wall off that part occupied by him. 1848Dickens Dombey vii, Traffic was walled out. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 19 A space for cooking walled off from the sleeping-room. 1865W. G. Palgrave Journ. Central & E. Arabia II. 301 The town is walled in, but not strongly, on the land side.
c. To furnish (a building) with side and partition walls; to build the wall or walls of. Also with up.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 323 And þere-with grace bigan to make a good foundement, And watteled it and walled it with his peynes & his passioun. c1394P. Pl. Crede 164 And all was walled þat wone. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccix. 102 b/2 Therein was a square toure thick walled. 1691Dryden K. Arthur ii. 19 That Castle, were it wall'd with Adamant, Can hide thy Head, but till to Morrow's Dawn. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 78 The Towers..ought not to be open on the inside, but walled up quite round. 1799A. Young View Agric. Lincoln. 34 The old buildings are of timber, walled with clay. 1911G. Macdonald Roman Wall Scot. xii. 401 Perhaps it was now that Castlecary was walled with stone.
d. To line (a well, cistern) with a wall. Also with round.
1707Mortimer Husb. 229 A Cistern of Clay walled within with Bricks. 1833J. Davidson Brit. & Rom. Rem. Axminster 84 A hole in the natural soil..walled round in a circular form with flint stones.
2. transf. and fig. To enclose, defend, bound, or divide as with a wall, or as a wall does.
c1386Chaucer Manciple's T. 219 My sone, god..Walled a tonge with teeth and lippes eke ffor man sholde hym auyse what he speeke. 1558A. Jenkinson in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) I. 331 We feared nothing being walled with the said riuer. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 24 On either hand thee, there are squadrons pitcht, To wall thee from the liberty of Flight. 1595Polimanteia in Brydges Brit. Bibl. I. 278 Yet both of you [Oxford and Cambridge] so deare to me,..so walled with priuiledges, so crowned with all kinde of honor. 1603–4Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 122 (QQ 1, 2) There's such diuinitie doth wall [Fol. hedge] a king, That treason dares not looke on. c1620Fletcher False One v. iv. 26 My free mind, Like to the palm-tree walling fruitful Nile, Shall grow up straighter. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 165 Either side is wall'd with an amazing hill. 1639Fuller Holy War iv. vii. 179 They..onely spoiled poore villages, which counted themselves walled with the truce as yet in force. 1667Milton P.L. iii. 721 Each [star] had his place appointed, each his course, The rest in circuit walles this Universe. 1818L. Hunt Hero & Leander ii. 7 The struggling flare Seem'd out; but then he knew his Hero's care, And that she only wall'd it with her cloak. 1834Ld. Houghton Mem. Tour Greece 23 The tall white rock, Walled the far waste of silent sea. 1879Daily News 18 Sept. 6/1 The enclosures were walled with Union Jacks. 1883Bridges Prometheus 14 Where the path Is walled with corn I am found. 1913Engl. Rev. Dec. 59 On the right hand, walling the street, [is] the great monastery to the Passion of Christ.
b. with about, across, along, in, round.
c1430Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. xx. (1869) 15 This closure that closeth yow and walleth yow in, disseueringe yow from the world. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 3 A Lady wal'd about with Diamonds. 1593― Rich. II, iii. ii. 167 As if this Flesh, which walls about our Life, Were Brasse impregnable. a1626Bacon War with Spain (1629) 45 The Spaniards..casting themselues continually into Roundels, (their strongest Ships walling in the rest). 1642Denham Sophy i. 1 'Tis his single vertue And terror of his name, that walls us in From danger. 1690C. Nesse O. & N. Test. I. 38 A weekly sabbath walls in our wild natures. 1795Southey Joan of Arc i. 475 At length I heard of Orleans, by the foe Wall'd in from human succour. 1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. 207 The high precipices which had hitherto walled in the channel of Snake river. 1845J. Coulter Adv. in Pacific xi. 132 The..upper part of the clearing, which was walled along for several hundred yards by solid rock. 1878Browning Poets Croisic Prol. 3 World ― how it walled about Life with disgrace. 1883Stevenson Silverado Sq. (1886) 39 A canyon..was here walled across by a dump of rolling stones. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xiv, The..landlocked bay, with..a grand sand⁓stone bluff guarding and walling-in the farther point like a grim jealous giant.
c. To form the sides of (a room) like walls; to line the walls of (an apartment).
1832Lytton Eugene Aram i. iii. 20 The rest of the room was walled from the floor to the roof with books. 1846G. B. Cheever Lect. Pilgr. Progr. x. 126 It does not take long in such employment to make the room seem walled with retributive flames. 1910G. W. E. Russell 15 Chapters Autob. (1914) vii. 149 The great gallery, walled with the canvases of Rubens.
3. To shut up (a person or thing) within walls, to build up or entomb in a wall, to immure. Chiefly with up.
1530Palsgr. 770/2, I wall, I shyt up, or close up, within walles. Je mure... It is a harde relygyon to be an anchre, for they be shytte up within walles and can go no farther. 1600E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 243 They were walled vp within their monasterie. a1618Fletcher Mad Lover i. i, In three [battles] he beat the Thunder-bolt his Brother, Forc'd him to wall himself up. 1621Lady M. Wroth Urania 133 After the sight of one dead, the other wall'd to certaine death,..what could they say? 1647in Verney Mem. (1892) II. xii. 285 The feather bedds that were waled up are much eaten with Ratts. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) VI. 87 But if ne'er so close you wall him,..Blind Love..Will find out the way. 1737W. Cowper in F. Peck Mem. O. Cromwell etc. ii. (1740) 88, I am apt to think the person found in the vault was betrayed and walled up alive by them he trusted. 1845Poe Black Cat (end), I had walled the monster up within the tomb!
transf.1867G. Macdonald Poems 87, I will be a knight Walled up in armour black.
¶b. An alleged synonym of gate v.1
1860C. Benson Mr. Bedlow, Remin. Amer. Coll. Life in Macm. Mag. II. 222/1 To ‘gate’ or ‘wall’ a refractory student would be simply impossible, for want of the material masonry.
1871Hoppe s.v. Gate gives the prec. quot.; hence the sense appears (as ‘Oxford university slang’) in Barrère & Leland Slang, in Farmer, and in recent Dicts.
4. To close (a gate or other aperture) with or as with a wall. Chiefly with up.
1503Engl. Misc. (Surtees 1890) 30 John Mitteley & his heires frome now forthe shall wall up..the utter west syde of his swynstye. 1535Coverdale 1 Macc. v. 47 They that were in the cite, wolde not let them go thorow, but walled vp the portes with stones. 1605Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 168 A waller, one day wallinge uppe the dower..iiijd. 1667Observ. Burning Lond. 23 [They] were talking of walling the Gates to prevent the coming in of the Tartarians. 1707–21Mortimer Husb. (ed. 5) II. 192 Wall up the sides with Brick. 1848H. Greville Leaves fr. Diary 1 July (1883) 280 The door has been walled to prevent surprise. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. viii, Some of the windows had been walled up. 1886Willis & Clark Cambridge II. 125 Bishop Alcock..walled up the arches and inserted in each of them a window.
5. To build (stone) into a wall. Also of stone, to make (a specified length) of walling.
1621Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 251 P'd for soe many stones as walled nyne y'des, ijs iijd. 1791Smeaton Edystone L. (1793) §209 When it [Bath Free Stone] is walled with this kind of mortar,..the joints are more permanent. 1848–9L'pool. Archit. Soc. (1852) II. 190 It [the rubble] may be walled with or without mortar.
6. absol. or intr. To construct a wall or walls; to build walling.
1588Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 44 Towe mene for wallinge towe days, ijs ijd. 1598Ibid. 112 Towe worke⁓men, for waullynge and daubynge in the bru howse..xvjd. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 47 We may be said rather to wall than only to fill up.
7. trans. To chalk up (a score) on the wall. slang.
1848Sinks of Lond. 129 Wall it, chalking a reckoning up at a public house.
▪ VIII. † wall, v.3 Obs.
[OE. weallian = OHG., (M)LG., MDu. wallen, OHG. wallōn (MHG., mod.G. wallen):—WGer. *wallōjan.
By some scholars referred to the root of wall v.1; others regard it as a contraction of *waþlōjan (cf. OHG. wadalôn to roam about).]
intr. To go on pilgrimage.
a1000Canons Edgar, Of Penitents §10 in Thorpe Ags. Laws II. 280 Deoplic dæd-bot bið þæt læwede man his wæpna alecᵹe & wealliᵹe bær-fot wide. c1485Digby Myst. iii. 1848 With me xall ȝe wall to have more eloquens & goo vesyte þe stacyons by and by.
▪ IX. wall, v.4 Now only U.S.|wɔːl|
Also 5–9 Sc. waul(e, wawl(e, 5–6 Sc. (? erron.) waill.
[MSc. wawle:—*waȝle, related to waȝl- in wall-eyed a.]
trans. To roll (the eyes). Also absol., and intr. of the eyes. Hence ˈwalling ppl. a. (Sc. waulen').
c1480Henryson Cock & Fox 469 The Cok..Vnwarlie winkand, wawland vp and doun. c1500in Makculloch MS. (S.T.S.) iv. 27 Cuttis for þi cot þai kest..out throw þi harnis þe pykis of thorne apliit, wawland [MS. Arundel wailland] þi ene. 1513Douglas æneis viii. vii. 154 In the breist of the goddes graif thai Gorgones heid,..Wyth ene wauland [L. vertentem lumina]. 1818Edin. Mag. Oct. 328/2 The sicht forhow't her waulen' een, Sho lay in the deadthraws. 1821Scott Pirate xxx, But presently recovering himself, he wawls on me with his gray een, like a wild-cat. 1817Hogg Gude Greye Katt xxvii. in Poetic Mirror (1817) 196 Quhill ilken bosome byrnit with lufe, And waulit ilken ee. 1876‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer v, The ladies would lift up their hands,..and ‘wall’ their eyes, and shake their heads. 1883Trans. Amer. Philol. Soc. 55 Wall the eyes, that is, ‘to roll the eyes so as to show the white.’ I can remember this as a very common way among the little negroes in South Carolina of showing displeasure.
▪ X. wall, v.5 Naut.|wɔːl|
[f. wall n.4]
trans. To make a wall-knot on (a rope).
1883Man. Seamanship for Boys 112 The end [of the rose-lashing] is finished off by crowning and walling the end close to the crossing turns.
▪ XI. wall
see wale n.1 and n.2, waw, well. |