Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - wall

(walls) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. A wall is one of the vertical sides of a building or room. Kathryn leaned against the wall of the church... The bedroom walls would be painted light blue... She checked the wall clock. N-COUNT • -walled ...a glass-walled elevator... COMB in ADJ 2. A wall is a long narrow vertical structure made of stone or brick that surrounds or divides an area of land. He sat on the wall in the sun... N-COUNT 3. The wall of something that is hollow is its side. He ran his fingers along the inside walls of the box. N-COUNT: with supp 4. A wall of something is a large amount of it forming a high vertical barrier. She gazed at the wall of books... I was just hit by a wall of water. N-COUNT: with supp, usu N of n 5. You can describe something as a wall of a particular kind when it acts as a barrier and prevents people from understanding something. The police say they met the usual wall of silence... N-COUNT: with supp, usu N of n 6. see also cavity wall, dry-stone wall, fly-on-the-wall, hole-in-the-wall, off-the-wall, retaining wall, sea wall, stonewall, wall-to-wall 7. If you say that you are banging your head against a wall, you are emphasizing that you are frustrated because someone is stopping you from making progress in something. (INFORMAL) I appealed for help but felt I was always banging my head against a wall... I wondered if I was banging my head against a brick wall. PHRASE: V inflects, usu cont c darkgreen]emphasis 8. If you have your back to the wall, you are in a very difficult situation and can see no way out of it. (INFORMAL) Their threat to hire replacement workers has the union with its back to the wall. PHRASE: back inflects 9. If you say that something or someone is driving you up the wall, you are emphasizing that they annoy and irritate you. (INFORMAL) The heat is driving me up the wall... I sang in the bath and drove my parents up the wall. PHRASE: V inflects c darkgreen]emphasis 10. If a person or company goes to the wall, they lose all their money and their business fails. (INFORMAL) Even quite big companies are going to the wall these days. PHRASE: V inflects 11. fly on the wall: see fly the writing is on the wall: see writing WALL COVERING see wallcovering