transcription, транскрипция: [ wɔ:l ]
( 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 [ 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 [ 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