Wall

Wall, wawl, n. an erection of brick, stone, &c. for a fence or security: the side of a building: (fig.) defence, means of security: in mining, one of the surfaces of rock enclosing the lode: (anat.) a paries or containing structure or part of the body: (pl.) fortifications.—v.t. to enclose with, or as with, a wall: to defend with walls: to hinder as by a wall.—n. Wall′-clock, a clock hung on a walk.—adj. Walled, fortified.—ns. Wall′er, one who builds walls; Wall′-flower, a plant with fragrant yellow flowers, found on old walls: a woman at a ball who keeps her seat, presumably for want of a partner—applied sometimes to men; Wall′-fruit, fruit growing on a wall; Wall′ing, walls collectively: materials for walls; Wall′-knot, a nautical method of tying the end of a rope.—adj. Wall′-less.—ns. Wall′-liz′ard, -newt, a gecko; Wall′-moss, the yellow wall-lichen: the stone-crop; Wall′-paint′ing, the decoration of walls with ornamental painted designs; Wall′-pā′per, paper usually coloured and decorated, for pasting on the walls of a room; Wall′-piece, a gun mounted on a wall; Wall′-plate, a horizontal piece of timber on a wall, under the ends of joists, &c.; Wall′-space (archit.), a plain expanse of wall; Wall′-spring, a spring of water running between stratified rocks; Wall′-tow′er, a tower built into and forming part of a line of fortification or a fortified city-wall; Wall′-tree, a tree trained against a wall; Wall′-wort, the European dwarf elder; Hang′ing-wall, that wall of the vein which is over the miner's head while working, the opposite wall being called the Foot′-wall.—Wall a rope, to make a wall-knot on the end of a rope.—Drive to the wall, to push to extremities; Go to the wall, to be hard pressed: to be pushed to extremes; Hang by the wall, to hang up neglected: to remain unused; Push, or Thrust, to the wall, to force to give place; The wall, the right of taking the side of the road near the wall when encountering another person, as in the phrase to Give, or Take, the wall. [A.S. weall, wall; Ger. wall, both from L. vallum, a rampart—vallus, a stake.]