/mawl/ ; Brit. also /mal/ , n.
1. Also called shopping mall . a large retail complex containing a variety of stores and often restaurants and other business establishments housed in a series of connected or adjacent buildings or in a single large building. Cf. shopping center .
2. a large area, usually lined with shade trees and shrubbery, used as a public walk or promenade.
3. Chiefly Upstate New York. a strip of land, usually planted or paved, separating lanes of opposite traffic on highways, boulevards, etc.
4. the game of pall-mall.
5. the mallet used in the game of pall-mall.
6. the place or alley where pall-mall was played.
[ 1635-45; by ellipsis from PALL MALL; see MELL 2 ]