wall

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

“the south wall had a small window”

“the walls were covered with pictures”

Examples:: Wailing Wall
a wall in Jerusalem; sacred to Jews as a place of prayer and lamentation; its stones are believed to have formed part of the Temple of Solomon; Hadrian's Wall
an ancient Roman wall built by Hadrian in the 2nd century; marked the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain

Types:: show 13 types...; hide 13 types...; attic
(architecture) a low wall at the top of the entablature; hides the roof; bearing wall
any wall supporting a floor or the roof of a building; cavity wall
a wall formed of two thicknesses of masonry with a space between them; chimney breast
walls that project out from the wall of a room and surround the chimney base; firewall
a fireproof (or fire-resistant) wall designed to prevent the spread of fire through a building or a vehicle; gable, gable end, gable wall
the vertical triangular wall between the sloping ends of gable roof; parapet
a low wall along the edge of a roof or balcony; proscenium, proscenium wall
the wall that separates the stage from the auditorium in a modern theater; sidewall
a wall that forms the side of a structure; wainscoting, wainscotting
a wainscoted wall (or wainscoted walls collectively); bell gable
an extension of a gable that serves as a bell cote; corbie gable
(architecture) a gable having corbie-steps or corbel steps; pediment
a triangular gable between a horizontal entablature and a sloping roof

Type of:: divider, partition
a vertical structure that divides or separates (as a wall divides one room from another)

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

Type of:: formation, geological formation
(geology) the geological features of the earth

n a layer of material that encloses space

“the walls of the cylinder were perforated”

“the container's walls were blue”

Type of:: bed, layer
single thickness of usually some homogeneous substance

n a masonry fence (as around an estate or garden)

“the wall followed the road”

“he ducked behind the garden wall and waited”

Types:: party wall
a wall erected on the line between two properties and shared by both owners; retaining wall
a wall that is built to resist lateral pressure (especially a wall built to prevent the advance of a mass of earth)

Type of:: fence, fencing
a barrier that serves to enclose an area

n an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes

“they blew the trumpet and the walls came tumbling down”

Synonyms:: bulwark, rampart

Examples:: Antonine Wall
a fortification 37 miles long across the narrowest part of southern Scotland (between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde); built in 140 to mark the frontier of the Roman province of Britain; Great Wall of China
a fortification 1,500 miles long built across northern China in the 3rd century BC; it averages 6 meters in width

Types:: show 6 types...; hide 6 types...; bailey
the outer defensive wall that surrounds the outer courtyard of a castle; battlement, crenelation, crenellation
a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns; earthwork
an earthen rampart; fraise
sloping or horizontal rampart of pointed stakes; merlon
a solid section between two crenels in a crenelated battlement; sconce
a small fort or earthwork defending a ford, pass, or castle gate

Type of:: embankment
a long artificial mound of stone or earth; built to hold back water or to support a road or as protection

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

“stomach walls”

Synonyms:: paries

Types:: abdominal wall
a wall of the abdomen

Type of:: stratum
one of several parallel layers of material arranged one on top of another (such as a layer of tissue or cells in an organism or a layer of sedimentary rock)

n anything that suggests a wall in structure or function or effect

“a wall of water”

“a wall of smoke”

“a wall of prejudice”

“negotiations ran into a brick wall”

Types:: footwall
the lower wall of an inclined fault; hanging wall
the upper wall of an inclined fault

Type of:: object, physical object
a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow

n a difficult or awkward situation

“his back was to the wall”

“competition was pushing them to the wall”

Type of:: difficulty
a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome

v surround with a wall in order to fortify

Synonyms:: fence, fence in, palisade, surround

Types:: stockade
surround with a stockade in order to fortify; circumvallate
surround with or as if with a rampart or other fortification

Type of:: protect
shield from danger, injury, destruction, or damage

DEFINITIONS OF: wall