Forms: 1 weall, weal, wall, 3–7 wal, walle, 4–7 wale, 4–6 Sc. vall, 6 Sc. val(e, (5 whalle,) 6 waule, (wawle), 8–9 Sc. wa’, 3– wall. [OE. wall (WS. weall), corresp. to OFris. wal, OS. wal(l, (M)LG., (M)Du. wal, MHG. wal from MLG. (mod.G. wall), a Saxon and Anglo-Frisian adoption of L. vallum. The Sw. vall, Da. val, are from LG.]
I. 1. A rampart of earth, stone or other material constructed for defensive purposes. [= L. vallum.]
In OE. frequently used with the meaning ‘a natural rampart, hill, cliff’: see Bosw.-Toller.
c. 900. Bæda’s Hist., I. ix [xii]. (1890), 46. Þæt hi ʓemænelice fæsten ʓeworhten him to ʓescyldnesse, stænene weal rihtre stiʓe fram eastsæ oð westsæ.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Exod. xiv. 22. And þæt water stod an twa healfa þære stræte swilce tweʓen heʓe weallas.
a. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 189. Þa ʓe wrohte he weall mid turfum & bred weall ðær on ufon fram sæ to sæ Britwalum to ʓebeorʓe.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 2184. Þat folc þo of þis lond … Bigonne to rere þon stronge wal.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 2. Þe watyr schall be hear then ayny hyll, by xltl cubytys, stondyng styll yn her styd, as hit wer a wall.
1581. J. Hamilton, Cath. Traict., 34. Moyses … causit the valter stand vp als ferme as ane vall quhil the Israelites past throu.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 26. Their carriages were so many, that therewith they intrenched their campe, like a wal.
1643. R. Baker, Chron., 2. The Emperor Adrian,… who made a great wall of earth between England and Scotland.
1699. Temple, Hist. Eng. (ed. 2), 38. Agricola began … a Wall or Vallum, upon that narrow space of Land that lies between the two Fryths.
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 76. He, whose long wall the wand’ring Tartar bounds.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, an. 1778 (1904), II. 203. He expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China.
1850. Smith’s Class. Dict., s.v. Serica, The Great Wall of China is mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus under the name of Aggeres Serium.
transf. 1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 141. They of those Marches … Shall be a Wall sufficient to defend Our in-land from the pilfering Borderers.
b. An embankment to hold back the water of a river or the sen. Cf. SEA-WALL.
1330. Rolls of Parlt., II. 36/2. De faire & de garder les Walles contre l’ewe de Tamys.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 209 b. At whiche season was suche a spryng tide, that it brake the walles of Hollande and Zelande.
1593. Norden, Spec. Brit., M’sex, I. 17. Blackwall…. The place taketh name of the blackenes or darkenes of the water bankes, or wall at that place.
1697. De Foe, Ess. Projects, 120–1. In our Marshes and Fens … where great Quantities of Land being … recovered out of the Seas and Rivers, and maintain’d with Banks (which they call Walls).
1713. Lond. Gaz., No. 5122/11. Two Pieces of Thames Wall, with the Ozier Ground and Foreland thereto belonging,… are to be Sold.
1888. Fenn, Dick o’ the Fens, iv. 49, foot-note. ‘Wall,’ in fen lands, the artificial bank or ridge of clay raised to keep back river, drain, or sea.
1898. P. H. Emerson, Marsh Leaves, lix. 179. He stopped, and looked along the rosy dike, uttered a hasty exclamation, and ran down the wall.
2. A defensive structure enclosing a city, castle, etc. Chiefly pl., fortifications. [= L. murus.]
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, xvii. 30. In gode minum ic ofergaa wall.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.), lix. 8. Hwylc ʓelædeð me leofran on ceastre, weallum beworhte?
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 41, in O. E. Hom., I. 163. Þes riche Men weneð bon siker þurh walle & þurh diche.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11433. Aȝen alle halwe churche þe verste dich hii nome & brake þe otemoste wal.
a. 1300. K. Horn (Hall), 1042. In strong halle, Biþinne castel walle.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 326. The engyns with oute, to kast were þei sette, Wallis & kirnels stoute, þe stones doun bette.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VI. 445. Thai sparit the ȝettis hastely, And in hy to the vallis ran.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 292. Brynston boilaunt brennyng out-casteþ hit Al hot [on] here heuedes þat entren ny þe walles.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 1136. Tre wark thai brynt … Wallis brak doun that stalwart war off stanys.
1490. Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 371. For the kepyng of every yate of the walleys of this citte.
1586. Whitney, Choice Emblems, 110. Then Scipio comes, that Carthage waules did race.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. ii. 2. Go to the Gates of Burdeaux Trumpeter, Summon their Generall vnto the Wall. Ibid., V. iii. 129. At your Fathers Castle walles, Wee’l craue a parley.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 657. Others from the Wall defend With Dart and Jav’lin, Stones and sulfurous Fire.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, II. 456. To … rush undaunted to defend the Walls.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, i. Madame de la Motte gave a last look to the walls of Paris.
1823. Lamb, Elia, II. Poor Relations. He was among the first who perished before the walls of St. Sebastian.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 468/1. Towards the east the external wall [of Ephesus] crosses a hill, called Lepre…. Other internal walls extend further south.
1847. Grote, Greece (1862), II. xix. 470. Babylon … was surrounded by walls three hundred feet in height.
fig. 1592. Arden of Feversham, I. i. 47. Sweete words are fittest engines To race the flint walles of a womans breast.
b. Within the walls: within the ancient boundaries (of a city) as distinguished from the suburbs; hence fig. within the limits (of the Church, † Europe, † Christendom, etc.).
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., IV. iii. (1600), L 4 b. I think him the tallest man liuing within the walls of Europe.
1627. J. Taylor (Water P.), Navy of Land Ships, D 3. In a place which I could name within the Walles of Christendome.
1667. Observ. Burning Lond., 15. The City of London within the Walls was seated upon about 460 Acres of Ground.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1754), 6. To the great Affliction of the City, one died within the Walls, in the Parish of St. Mary-Wool-Church.
1860. Warter, Sea-board, II. 468. The devout on earth will ever be found within the Church’s walls.
c. Her. A representation of an embattled wall used as a bearing.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 400/1. He beareth Argent … a Wall corniced, with two Towers upon it.
1889. Elvin, Dict. Her., 131. Wall embattled in bend sinister.
3. fig. a. Applied to a person or thing that serves as a defence.
1412–20. Lydg., Troy-bk., IV. 1958. For he of Troye is þe myȝti wal And diffence, now Hector is [a-]goon.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxxv. 73. Imperiall wall, place palestrall,… Aue Maria, gratia plena!
1565. Allen, Defence Purg., xvii. 281. One common engine they haue … for the sore shakinge of the weake waules of the simples faithe.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, III. 52. It is Aiax the strong, Who is best hope, defence and wall, that to the Greeks belong.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., II. I. 68. The Heauens hold firme The walls of thy deere Honour.
1838. Lytton, Leila, V. i. We will leave our homes unguarded—our hearts shall be their wall!
b. Applied to the sea, the navy or shipping (as Britain’s external defence); also to an army (as the safeguard of a country).
Wooden walls (applied to ships): see WOODEN a.
1436. Libel Eng. Policy, in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 203. Kepte [v.r. kepe] than the see abought in specialle, Whiche of England is the rounde walle; As thoughe England were lykened to a cite.
1642. Declar. Lords & Comm., 12–3 July, 3. The ships which are the wals of the Kingdome.
1643. R. Baker, Chron., 2. At which time [of Julius Cæsar] the Island was yet but in manner of a Village, being without Wals, as having no shipping, (which are indeed the true Wals of an Island).
1657. Trapp, Comm. Ezra ix. 9. ‘To give us a wall’—Protection and safeguard, as the Walles of Sparta was their Militia, and the Walles of England, is our Navy.
1697. Sir M. Beckman, in Sydney Papers, I. 171. The Army by Land, and the Fleet, was accounted the Walls of England.
4. An enclosing structure composed of bricks, stones or similar materials laid in courses.
Hollow wall, a wall built with an interior cavity or composed of hollow bricks. For blind, boulder, cob, dead, hot, list, rubble wall, etc., see those words; also BRICK WALL sb.1, MUD WALL, PARTY-WALL, STONE WALL
a. Each of the sides and vertical divisions of a building.
To stand to the wall (Sc.): of a door, to be wide open. Walls have ears (Prov.): see EAR sb.1 3.
c. 900. Bæda’s Hist., II. xi [xiv]. (1890), 138. Ærþon heo seo heannis þæs wealles [sc. of a church] ʓefylled wære & ʓeendad.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19313. We find ur prisuns all a-wai, þe dors sperd, þe walles hale.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 61. Þe wal wagged and clef and al þe worlde quaued.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 244. Sone hard he within a whalle The syghyng of a lady smalle, Sche weppte, as sche were wod.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 142. Of the whiche buyldynge … the foure walles be the foure cardinall vertues.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. iv. 49. In Iron Walls they deem’d me not secure. Ibid. (1596), Merch. V., II. ix. 29. Which … like the Martlet Builds in the weather on the outward wall.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, Ep. Ded. To make use of that, which in your service, and within the walls of your own house, I had produced.
1649. Lovelace, To Althea fr. Prison, iv. Stone Walls do not a Prison make.
1728. Ramsay, Fables, Monk & Miller’s Wife, 256. Wauk forth, the door stands to the wa’.
1732. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 188. Like some lone Chartreux stands the good old Hall, Silence without, and Fasts within the wall.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, vii. Look at the burnt wa’s of our kinsman’s house.
1823. J. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 307. Walls of stone may be made one-fifth thinner than those of brick.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xl. Mr. Pickwick found himself, for the first time in his life, within the walls of a debtor’s prison.
1876. Encycl. Brit., IV. 447/2. The inclined roof of a building, spanning from wall to wall, tends to thrust out the walls.
In figurative context (after Acts xxiii. 3). 1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 173. If Percase I happen to touch some painted walles, and godly hypocrites.
b. An enclosing structure built round a garden, field, yard or other property; also, each of the portions between the angles of such an enclosure.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8233. A wall a-bote dide for to rais, And planted tres þat war to prais.
1587. Mascall, Govt. Cattle, Hogges (1596), 263. It were good to make the walles or hedges of your sties of foure foote hie.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. i. 5. He ran this way and leapt this Orchard wall.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 7. A most stately Grove of Cocoes and Oranges … surrounded by a Wall.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 865. On dry banks, trunks of trees, and walls.
1833. Tennyson, Lady of Shalott, I. ii. Four gray walls, and four gray towers, Overlook a space of flowers.
† c. Wall of timber: a wooden partition, a fence.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 20. I will yt my newe hous … be deseverid … with a walle of tymbyr fro the hefd place.
† d. As a place or means of torture. Obs.
1528. Tindale, Obed. Chr. Man, 149. And when they crye furiously hold the heretikes vnto the wall and if they will not revoke burne them.
1590. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (1908), V. 179. Another warrant … to commytte them … unto such torture upon the wawle as is usuall.
e. The inner side of a sidewalk or pavement; the side next the wall. (Cf. the phrases to give, take the wall in 16.)
1606. Choice, Chance, etc. (1881), 70. Snuffes vp the Nose, and swaggers for the wall.
1620. I. C., Two Merry Milkmaids, II. ii. F 2. But now I will giue no man place at Wall or Kennell.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 250, ¶ 11. All such as have been defrauded of their Right to the Wall.
1732. Pope, Ep. Cobham, 234. Behold a rev’rend sire … Shov’d from the wall perhaps, or rudely press’d By his own son.
f. (a) In the phrase at the wall, designating a species of football peculiar to Eton played against a wall, as distinguished from that played ‘in the field.’ (b) Applied to each of the players who form the ‘bully’ or scrimmage against the wall.
1864. [B. Hemyng], Eton School Days, xxiii. 254. But give me, for real enjoyment … a good game of football at Eton, either at the wall or in the open field.
1883. Sat. Rev., 1 Dec., 696/1. Football ‘at the Wall’ takes its name from being played against the brick wall which divides the Slough Road from the Lower Playing Fields. Ibid. Three of the players on either side, known as ‘walls,’ form a line against the rough bricks.
1887. Shearman, Athletics & Football (Badm.), 280. The game is begun by a ‘bully’ in the centre of the wall. The ‘wall’ whose turn it is to ‘go in,’ forms down with his shoulder against the wall,… the two other ‘walls’ back him up…. The ball is placed against the wall between the feet of the two first opposing ‘walls,’ and the game begins.
5. fig. Something that is a barrier or impediment to intellectual, moral, spiritual, or social union or intercourse; also more definitely wall of partition.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 262. And ȝet, ȝe habbeð þet ilke blod, & tet ilke blisfule bodi … niht & dei bi on. Nis þer buten a wal bitweonen.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in O. E. Hom., I. 187. Mine sunnen beoþ wal bi-tweone me & þe.
a. 1500[?]. Chester Pl., Fall Lucifer, 153. Alas! that pride is the wall of lewtye.
1562. Winȝet, Cert. Tractatis, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 27/4. To attempt sic proude misordour sall … big vp ane wal betuix vs and ȝou in religioun.
1766, 1872. Wall of partition [see PARTITION sb. 2].
1843. Ruskin, Arrows of Chace (1880), I. 17. A wall of tradition, which may not be broken through.
1900. St. Barbe, Mod. Spain, 16. He … barricades himself behind an unassailable wall of self-sufficiency.
6. A wall considered with regard to its surface.
a. The interior wall of an apartment.
The writing on the wall (after Dan. v.): see WRITING vbl. sb.
Beowulf, 326. Setton sæmeþe side scyldas, rondas reʓnhearde, wið þæs recedes weal.
c. 1290. St. Dunstan, 142, in S. Eng. Leg., 23. Þe harpe song al bi hire-self as heo heng bi þe walle.
c. 1430. in Babees Bk., 27. Aȝen þe post lete not þi bak abide, neiþer make þi myrrour also of þe wal.
c. 1535. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 949. To sile a wale, lambroisser.
1562. A. Brooke, Romeus & Jul., 2410. She thinkes to speake to Iuliet, but speaketh to the walles.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., I. ii. 171. All the inrolled penalties Which haue (like vn-scowr’d Armor) hung by th’ wall So long. Ibid. (1607), Cor., I. iii. 12. I considering how Honour would become such a person, that it was no better then Picture-like to hang by th’wall.
a. 1629. Hinde, J. Bruen, xxvi. (1641), 82. They … who have sought for Christ and his Apostles, not in the holy Booke of God, but in painted wales and windows.
1639. J. Taylor (Water P.), Part of Summers Trav., Wks. III. (1872), 43. In the mean time, the Preacher speaks to the bare walls.
1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 20. Is there, who, lock’d from ink and paper, scrawls With desp’rate charcoal round his darken’d walls?
1781. Cowper, Charity, 552. Guns, halberts, swords, and pistols, great and small, In starry forms dispos’d upon the wall. Ibid. (1781), Hope, 346. From stucco’d walls smart arguments rebound.
1859. Lever, Dav. Dunn, xix. The walls were decorated with coloured prints and drawings.
1891. Law Times, XCII. 79/1. This almanack has been familiar for many years on the walls of barristers, solicitors, and public offices.
b. A garden- or house-wall upon which fruit-trees and flowering trees are trained.
1699–. Fruit wall [see FRUIT sb. 9].
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 527. Having occasion to find fault with the common sort of Walls for Fruits, it gives me an opportunity of recommending … sloping Walls.
1734. Pope, Hor. Sat., II. ii. 146. And grapes, long ling’ring on my only wall.
1781. Cowper, Retirem., 494. Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall. Ibid. (1784), Task, III. 408. Proud of his well-spread walls, he views his trees.
1864. Tennyson, En. Arden, 336. Yet he sent … garden-herbs and fruit, The late and early roses from his wall.
in fig. context. 1857. Trollope, Barchester T., I. xix. 287. They habitually looked on the sunny side of the wall. Ibid. (1858), Dr. Thorne, I. vi. 141. Women grow on the sunny side of the wall.
† 7. Walling. Obs. rare–1.
1603. G. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1892), 70. This lymestone … is putt into a kill made of wall.
II. Transferred uses.
8. Something that resembles a wall in appearance; a perpendicular surface forming an enclosure or barrier.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 567. Huge Oxen stand inclos’d in wint’ry Walls of Snow congeal’d.
1736. Gray, Statius, II. 14. The theatre’s green height and woody wall.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 20. Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain.
1842. Tennyson, Day-Dream, 65. A wall of green Close-matted, bur and brake and briar.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xlvi. The black wall of forest beyond. Ibid., xlviii. A wall of water, looming high above her mainyard, came rushing and booming along.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xx. 143. Midway down the spur I lighted upon a transverse wall of rock.
1903. Kipling, Five Nations, 2. The in-rolling walls of the fog.
† b. Mil. In wall: of battalions, extended in one continuous line like a wall. Obs.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 741/1. The enemy’s army … is in two lines, the first of which is formed in wall…; the second is formed with large intervals.
9. Something that confines or encloses like the wall of a house, prison, etc.; chiefly pl., the containing sides of a vessel, the vertical sides of a tent, and the like.
1594. Selimus, D 1. You thinke it strange … To see me low laie off effeminate robes, And arme my bodie in an iron wall.
1595. Shaks., John, III. iii. 20. Within this wall of flesh There is a soule counts thee her Creditor.
1615. R. Cocks, Diary (Hakl. Soc.), I. 57. The walle or neting the king caused to be made to fish was borne downe in the night with the force of the tide.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., xx. (1653), 327. The walls … of the Breasts [of infants], are … depraved by Nurses, while they … do overstrictly bind them.
1790. W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. Midl., II. 445. Wall; the stem of a rick is called the walls.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., vi. 89. The walls of a closed vessel containing air are pressed outwards by the elastic force of the confined air.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 251/1. The drift-net … forms a long wall or barrier of netting hanging for a few fathoms perpendicularly in the water.
1897. Outing, XXX. 375/1. [A tent] which has walls at least three feet high, should answer.
10. Mining. a. The coating or crust of a lode or vein; also, the side of a mine next to this.
For foot-wall, hanging wall see FOOT sb. 35, HANGING ppl. a. 6.
1728. Phil. Trans., XXXV. 404. Sometimes,… the Mine is lined with an intermediate Substance between the Load and it self. This is (properly speaking) the Wall of the Load: Though, in the Common Acceptation of that Term, it signifies either such intermediate Substance, or the side of the Mine, where the Load immediately unites it self to it.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XII. 39/1. The capels or walls of the lode.
1818. W. Phillips, Geol., 210. A … crust occasionally covers one or both sides of the vein, technically called the walls of the load.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Wall. 1. The side of a level or drift. 2. The country-rock bounding a vein laterally.
b. Coal-mining. (See quot. 1883.)
Long wall: see LONG a.1 18. Stenting wall: see STENTING sb.
1750. in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Rec., App. II. 124. Carrying Coals from the Coal Walls where they are dug to the bottom of the Pit or Shaft.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, etc., 979. The first set [of workmen] curves or pools the coal along the whole line of walls.
1893. Gresley, Gloss, Coal-mining, Wall. 1. The face of a long-wall working or stall, commonly called the coal-wall. 2. (North of Eng.) A rib of solid coal between two boards. Ibid., Walls (Scotl.) Short working faces or stalls (also headings 6 ft. in width) from 12 to 20 yards wide.
c. To the wall: see quot.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal mining, Wall (‘To the Wall’) (North of Eng.). A term signifying breadth, in reference to the size of pillars in the system of working known as Pillar and Stall.
11. Engraving. (See quots.)
1797. Encycl. Brit., VI. 742/2 (Etching), A border of soft wax … must be fastened round the plate about an inch high, in the form of a little wall or rampart, to contain the aquafortis.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 767. The plate is surrounded with a border or wall, about an inch high, composed of bees’ wax.
1839. Chatto & Jackson, Wood Engraving, 715. The plate is surrounded with a wall, as it is technically termed, and aquafortis being poured upon it, all the unprotected parts are corroded, and the drawing left in relief.
12. Anat. and Zool. The membranous investment or lining tissue (of any organ or cavity of the body, of a vesicle, tumor, and the like). Also Bot., the cellulose membrane (of a cell).
1677. Grew, Anat. Fruits, iv. § 5. As by Refraction, Objects of all sizes are represented on the Walls of the Eye.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 85. These [adipose] vesicles are so thin that it is impossible to distinguish their walls.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 889. The walls of ovarian tumours consist mainly of connective tissue.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 469. He then cut diagonally across, and actually lifted the wall of the chest, and groped about among the vitals for the bullet.
b. The outer horny covering of the foot of a horse.
1830. J. Hinds, Osmer’s Treat. Horse (ed. 5), 7, note. This is the earliest mention we can find of the crust or hoof proper, being denominated the wall of the foot, a term which has now become general among us. [The passage referred to (Osmer, ? 1756) reads ‘like a wall’].
1831. Youatt, Horse, xv. 280. The crust or wall of the hoof … is that portion which is seen when the foot is placed on the ground.
III. Phrases.
13. To go to the wall (or † walls): a. to give way, succumb in a conflict or struggle.
1589. Pasquil’s Ret., A iiij. They neuer went to the wall, till they grewe to be factious.
1601. J. Wheeler, Treat. Comm., 111. Wee should go to the walles, be wronged and exacted vpon euery where.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xxix. Sam and Mayford are both desperately in love with her, and one must go to the wall.
1861. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., xx. 385. it is easy to see which power will go to the wall if a conflict occurs.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, xliii. In all these struggles Crosbie had had the best of it, and Butterwell had gone to the wall.
Proverb. [1535: see WAW].
1549. Cheke, Hurt Sedit. (1641), 53. When brethren agree not in a house, goeth not the weakest to the walls?
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 53. The weakest must still to the wall.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. i. 18. Greg. That shewes thee a weake slaue, for the weakest goes to the wall.
1651. Culpepper, Astrol. Judgem. Dis. (1658), 80. You know the old proverb, The weakest goes to the Walls.
b. Of a business, matter, etc.: To give way or give precedence (to something else).
1858. Gladstone, Homer, III. 519. Here is another case of metre against history, and in all such cases history must go (as is said) to the wall.
1890. M’Carthy, Four Georges, II. 45. Where political interests interfered family arrangements went to the wall.
c. To fail in business.
1842. Thackeray, Miss Tickletoby’s Lect., vi. Wks. 1886, XXIV. 37. It was better for all parties that poor Shortlegs should go to the wall.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., lxxii. (1901), II. 253. He had been the property of some East-end Bowker, who, in classical language, had ‘gone to the wall.’
1879. Spencer, Data of Ethics, xv. § 103. 266. Others of his [a merchant’s] debtors by going to the wall may put him in further difficulties.
1891. 19th Cent., Dec., 861. In Berlin a newspaper would very soon go to the wall if it did not present its subscribers with light entertainment.
14. To † set, † thrust, or send to the wall: to thrust aside into a position of neglect.
1583. Babington, Commandm., 334. God knowes … how often they are wrecked and wronged and set to the wal by cruell … and hard hearted men.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. i. 20. Women being the weaker Vessels, are euer thrust to the wall.
1901. N. & Q., 9th Ser. VIII. 411/1. During the later fifties he was sent to the wall by the superior talents of the late Robert Prowse.
15. To drive (or push) to the wall: to drive to the last extremity.
With or having one’s back to the wall: see BACK sb.1 25.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov., II. v. (1867), 58. That deede without woords shall driue him to the wall. And further than the wall he can not go.
1644. Prynne & Walker, Fiennes’s Trial, 34. The Colonell thus driven to the wall and worsted on every hand, used two pleas more for his last reserve.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxii. I see what you are driving me to the wa’ about.
1828. Napier, Penins. War, III. iii. I. 336. The commissaries pushed to the wall by the delay, offered an exorbitant remuneration.
1860. L. Harcourt, Diaries G. Rose, II. 30. Being … driven to the wall, Addington complied.
16. To give a person the wall: to allow a person the right or privilege of walking next the wall as the cleaner and safer side of a pavement, sidewalk, etc. Similarly, to have, take the wall (of a person), to have, take the inside position.
1537[?]. Thersytes, 150. Yes, yes, god wote they geve me the wall, Or elles with my clubbe I make them to fall.
1592. Arden of Feversham, V. i. I haue made some go vppon wodden legges for taking the wall on me.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 95. The Persians had a law enioyning all men … to giue him [an elder] the wall when they mett him in the streetes.
1703. Rules Civility, 11. Giving … the Right-hand or Wall in the Street.
1773. Johnson, in Boswell, Tour Hebrides, 20 Sept. In the last age … there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall, and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome…. Now, it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it, and it is never a dispute.
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., II. (1586), 76 b. I weigh it little, that my equall, hauing the wall of me, should goo from it to giue me place.
1605. Heywood, If you know not me, E 1 b. Enter the Englishman, and Spaniard. Spa. The wall, the wall. Eng. Sblood Spaniard you get no wall here,… but since you will needs Haue the wall, Ile take the paynes to thrust You into the kennell.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xxv. The Spaniards … had … no room, in that narrow path, to use their pikes. The English had the wall of them; and to have the wall there, was to have the foe’s life at their mercy.
1537. Greene, Penelopes Web, Wks. (Grosart), V. 201. The wife of a poore Smith meeting the Empresse Faustina, tooke the wall of her in the streetes.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 28. Nothing was more common with them then to fight about taking the right or left hand, or the wall.
1757. Foote, Author, I. Wks. 1799, I. 135. He wou’d take the wall of a Prince of the Blood.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., iv. To … quarrel in her cause with any flat-capp’d thread-maker that would take the wall of her.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxxiii. The parlour window … is so close upon the foot-way that the passenger who takes the wall brushes the dim glass with his coat sleeve.
b. fig. (In early use sometimes without article, to give, take wall.)
1591. Nashe, Wonderf. Prognost., Wks. (Grosart), II. 157. The Bakers Basket shall giue wall vnto the Brewers Barrell.
1608. Bp. Hall, Serm. Pharasaism, Wks. (1625), 413. Some Traditions must haue place in euery Church; but, Their place: they may not take wall of Scripture. Ibid. (1652), Invis. World, III. § 1. If a supposed and self respective good be suffered to take the wall of the best and absolute good.
1679. R. W., O. Cromwell’s Ghost, 2.
| Though old in Artful Wickedness I be, | |
| Yet Rome, I now Resign the Wall to thee. |
1758. L. Temple, Sketches (ed. 2), 59. According to nice Herald-like Ceremony, the Son, as the better Gentleman, ought to take the Wall of the Father.
† 17. To lie by the wall (or walls), to lie on one side, remain idle or unused; of a ship, to lie up (in dock or harbor); also to lay by the walls. Obs.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 46/2. And the law in the meane time must lye by the walles [Fr. demeure là].
1656. Burton’s Diary (1828), I. 82. I am glad the mariners are so sensible of the laying of our English ships by the walls. Ibid. (1658–9), III. 462. Our ships lie by the walls, and theirs ride.
1672. Wallis, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1847), II. 529. To put forth what France is not willing to venture upon, provided that it do not hinder the printing those of our own nation,… which lie by the wall for want of publishing.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 66. He walked towards that part of the Creek, where … three of their largest ships lay by the walls.
1787. Grose, Provinc. Gloss., s.v. Wall, He lies by the wall. Spoken of a person dead but not buried. Norf. and Suf.
18. (To be able) to see, etc. through or into a (brick, mud, stone) wall: to be endowed with great keenness of perception or understanding.
1598. Marston, Pygmal., Sat., ii. Thou know’st I am sure, for thou canst cast thine eie Through nine mud walls, or els old Poets lie.
1885. Illustr. Lond. News, 7 Feb., 136/4. Lord Sherbrooke … can see as far as most people into a stone wall.
19. To turn one’s face to the wall: said of a person on his deathbed conscious of the approach of the end (? after 2 Kings xx. 2, Isa. xxxviii. 2).
1579. in Narratives Reform. (Camden), 35. He turned his face to the walle in the sayd belfry; and so after his prayers sleapte swheetly in the Lorde.
16[?]. Barbara Allen’s Cruelty, ix. in Child, Ballads, II. 277. He turnd his face unto the wall, And death came creeping to him.
1856. Knight, Pop. Hist. Eng., I. xxi. 304. He [Henry II.] turned his face to the wall, and exclaimed, ‘Let every thing go as it will.’ [Cf. Girald. Cambrens. (Rolls), VIII. 295 iterum se lecto reclinans faciemque suam ad parietem vertens.]
1876. ‘Mark Twain,’ Tom Sawyer, iii. He would turn his face to the wall, and die with that word unsaid.
IV. 20. Short for a. wall-tree, b. WALLFLOWER, c. wall butterfly.
a. 1707. Mortimer, Husb., 522. Your Trees being grafted … the next thing to be consider’d, is which are to be for Dwarfs, Walls and Standards.
b. 1825. R. P. Ward, Tremaine, I. xvi. 100. There was a regular return of the same flowers … such as walls, and provence roses, convolvolus, and sweet-william.
c. 1832. J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 12. The Wall (Hipparchia Megæra, Leach). The Brown Wall (H. Phædra, Stephens).
V. attrib. and Comb.
21. a. simple attrib., as wall arch, -coping, -mosaic, -nock, -side, -tiling, -top; with the meaning ‘set or fixed against a wall,’ as wall candlestick, -case, -clock, -map, -plug, -press, -sconce; with the meaning ‘growing upon or against a wall,’ as wall-berry, -plant, -plum.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, xxx. (ed. 3), 268. On the wall of Westminster Hall … there are plainly visible the traces of *wall arches erected by Richard II.
1908. [Miss E. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 313. Perhaps it had earlier been busy upon the *wall-berries.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 381/2. *Wall or Hanging Candlesticks.
1886. Willis & Clark, Cambridge, III. 181. *Wall-cases were provided, and the collections were removed from the Old Museum.
1891. Century Dict., *Wall clock.
1887. J. G. Andrew, Mem. W. Graham, vii. 153. Above the *wall-coping … appeared an endless row of peering sorrow-stricken faces.
1907. T. C. Middleton, Geogr. Knowl. Discov. Amer., 20. The *wall-map of the world, painted in his banquet-hall at the Lateran.
1913. Eden, Ancient Glass, 26. Glass *wall-mosaics for interior decoration.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, iii. The ground-ivy mantling old *wall-nooks.
1880. Archæol. Cant., XIII. 26. The singular thickness of the *wall-piers causes the central body of the crypt to be narrower.
1873. Mary Somerville, Recoll., xviii. 372. The Trachelium cœruleum, a pretty *wall-plant.
1914. Batstone, Electr.-Light Fitting, 122. *Wall Plugs.
1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, IV. 72. I have observ’d upon a *Wall-plum … at first beginning to turn blue [etc.].
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 285. A *wall-press … is necessary in a corn-barn.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 861. Sbo went vp wightly by a *walle syde To the toppe of a toure.
1887. P. M’Neill, Blawearie, 176. Many alterations on the roof and wall-sides would have to be made.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 83/2. Decorative *wall-tiling.
1849. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 371. It is found under … lichens on *wall-tops.
b. objective, and objective genitive, as wall-builder, -building, -peeler; wall-like, -loving adjs.; instrumental, as wall-bound, -fed, -girt adjs.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 375. Hannibal … taking his place … among the *wall-builders and wonder-workers of Eastern history and legend.
1823. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 221. Paving and *wall-building.
1862. W. Barnes, Dorset Dial., II. 78. There, in the geärden’s *wall-bound square.
1898. Athenæum, 23 July, 137/3. The clinging *wall-fed ivy.
1883. Harper’s Mag., Nov., 876.
| Ah, not for us such green repose, | |
| Gray *wall-girt stillness, brooding air. |
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 168. *Wall-like masses are partially detached from the cliffs.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 120. Walls … of loose, dry stones, affording in the crevices root-space for many *wall-loving plants.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 431, ¶ 3. These craving Damsels, whether … Coal-Scranchers, *Wall-peelers, or Gravel-diggers.
22. Special comb.: wall-arcade Arch., an arcade (see ARCADE sb. 3) used as a decoration of a wall; hence wall-arcading, the stonework composing a wall-arcade; wall-bearing (see quot.); wall-border, a garden-border at the foot of a wall; wall-box (a) an aperture made in or through a wall to accommodate a wall-bearing; (b) a postal collecting box affixed to a wall as distinguished from a pillar-box; † wall-break a., that breaks down walls; wall-casing, the lining or superficial exterior covering of a wall; † wall-chalker (see quot. 1823); wall-clamp, -coal (see quots.); wall-crook dial., ? a wooden hook for driving into cob walls; wall-cutting, dock (see quots.); wall-dormer Arch., a dormer whose front is part of the main wall of the building carried up to the required height; wall-earth (see quot.); wall-engine, a small vertical steam engine bolted to a wall; wall-face (a) the working face in a coal-mine; (b) the surface of a wall; † wall-fast a., secure within walls; wall-fight, a siege; wall-fruit, the fruit of trees grown against a wall; also a fruit tree so grown; also attrib., as wall-fruit tree; wall-game, the Eton game of football played ‘at the wall’ (see 4 f); wall-grenede, a bombshell thrown from the walls by hand or by means of a small mortar called a hand-mortar (Cent. Dict., 1891); wall-gun, a large hand-gun supported on a tripod or crutch, for firing over a rampart; wall-hangings, tapestry hangings for walls; wall-head Sc., the top of a wall, esp. of a house-wall; also the space on the top of a wall between the roof-beams, used as a receptacle or shelf; also attrib.; wall-hold, the end (of a beam, etc.) that is inserted in a wall as a bearing; wall-hook, † (a) a grappling-hook (obs.); (b) a hook-shaped holdfast for fastening wire, piping, etc., to a wall; † wall lecture Oxford Univ., a lecture delivered, according to statute, by a regent-master (to empty benches); wall-lining, a covering for the interior surface of a wall; wall-nail, a kind of nail made for driving into walls; wall-net, a vertical fishing-net forming the wall of an inclosed space (Cent. Dict.); † wall-observer, one who is addicted to reading placards; wall-post Arch. = PENDANT sb. 6 a; † wall-rase Sc. [cf. RASEN, RAISING-PIECE, -plate] = WALL PLATE; † wall-reared a. = wall-sided; † wall-reeve, an official charged with keeping embankments in repair; wall-rib Arch. (see quots. 1835–50); also attrib.; wall-rock Mining, the rock forming the walls of a vein; wall-saltpetre (see quot.); wall-shaft Arch., in engaged wall-shaft, a shaft or column partly let into the wall (cf. ENGAGED column); wall-sided a., having perpendicular sides like a wall; wall-strap (see quot.); wall-string, the string-board of a staircase that is next the wall; wall-tent, a tent with perpendicular sides; wall-tie, each of the pieces of iron, slate or other material used to bind together the two parts of a hollow wall; wall-tile (a) a tile used for lining a wall; † (b) north., a brick as distinguished from a roofing tile; † wall-tooth, a cheek-tooth, grinder; wall-tower, a tower forming part of a fortified wall (Cent. Dict.); † wall-town Sc., a walled or fortified town; wall-tree, a fruit-tree planted against and trained upon a wall; also attrib.; wall-wash, liquid distemper applied to the surface of a wall; wall-wise adv., after the manner of a wall; wall-work, † (a) work done in building a wall (obs.); (b) a defensive work consisting of walls. Also WALL-PAPER, WALL-PIECE, WALL-PLAT, WALL-PLATE, WALL-STONE.
1860. G. E. Street, in Archæol. Cant., III. 133. The *wall-arcades in the two churches.
1863. Sir G. Scott, Glean. Westm. Abb. (ed. 2), 33. The spandrels over the *wall-arcading are exquisitely beautiful. Ibid. (a. 1878), Lect. Archit., I. 97.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wall-bearing, a bearing for receiving a shaft when entering or passing through a wall.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 461. They are … transplanted into some *Wall-border towards the South and East.
1851. in Beck’s Florist, 128. A shrubbery or wall-border some four or five feet broad.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wall-box.
1887. D. A. Low, Machine Draw. (1892), 34. A neat appearance is given to the opening … by building into the wall a wall box.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. III. Schism, 727. Fell, *wall-break (all break) Famine … Howls hideously.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1871), I. 28. *Wall-casings of rich, polished marble.
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, *Wall-chalkers—fellows who … scrawl balderdash upon garden walls…. Others chalk up their trades—as ‘try Warren’s blacking’ [etc.].
1829. T. Hook, Bank to Barnes, 95. The Bill-Sticker’s Assistant and Wall-Chalker’s Vade-Mecum.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wall-clamp, a brace or lie to hold walls together, or the two parts of a double-wall, to prevent spreading.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 70. *Wall-coal, breast coal; the middle division of three in a seam, the other two being termed top coal and ground coal.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xxxviii. I worked … in the copse of young ash,… making spars to keep for thatching, *wall-crooks to drive into the cob, [etc.].
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 70. *Wall cutting, side cutting or shearing the solid coal in opening out working places; trimming the sides of a sinking pit.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 925. The *wall docks (plugs of wood) are not to be more than 16 inches apart.
1886. Willis & Clark, Cambridge, III. 551. The roof dormers very soon became *wall-dormers, rising in a line with the main walls of the buildings.
1723. Phil. Trans., XXXII. 420. The lower half of the Layers of Fullers-Earth, they call the *Wall-Earth.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, etc., 982. The instant each corve arrives, from the *wall face,… it is lifted from the tram by a crane.
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit. (1879), II. 141. In some of the Byzantine remains … they have architecturalised by mouldings and enrichments only just so much of the arch-stones as was needful for beauty, and left the rest to go as mere wall-face.
1593. Rites of Mon. Durham (Surtees), 53. She … laid those two without the doore that before was maid *wall-fast within her house.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxiii. (1862), V. 457. Alkibiadês warned the assembled seamen that they must prepare for a sea-fight, a land-fight, and a *wall-fight, all at once.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 266. Nail and trim *Wall-fruits.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2550/4. Good Gardens and Orchards planted with all sorts of choice Wall-fruit.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 24 March 1688. The wall fruit trees are most exquisitely nail’d and train’d.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 582. The wall-fruits of Britain include all those which in the central districts of England require the aid of a wall to bring them to perfection.
1883. Sat. Rev., 1 Dec., 695/2. The *Wall Game [at Eton].
1812. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 63. We then fired with slugs (Colonel Douglas with a Spanish barrel, and I with a huge *wall gun).
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, x. They found themselves … exposed to a fire both of musketry and wall-guns.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XIX. iv. V. 473. Wall-guns brought from Cüstrin.
1896. Lina Eckenstein, Woman under Monasticism, 233. The great work of her life was the manufacture of *wall-hangings, which she and her nuns worked together.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 83. [They] laid him on the *wall heid, that all might sie him deid.
1636. in Scottish Jrnl. Topogr. (1848), II. 11/1. Item, for ten hondreth of diffeit [= divot] riggine and wae-heid towrs [= turfs].
1898. Ld. E. Hamilton, Mawkin of Flow, xvii. 226. Here, Rob, rax me that bit rope that’s lying in the wall-head yonder.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 919. The inside lintels … are … to have at least 12 inches of bond (or *wall-bold) on each end.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 170. The steps should be droved 3 feet 6 inches clear of the wall, with 6 inches of wall hold.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 739. A *wall-hook or drag; Lupus, harpago.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 408. Fastening the pipes to the wall by means of wall-hooks of iron.
1882. Christy, Joints, 194. A strip of 5 lb. lead,… secured along one edge to the wall with wall hooks.
1662. Wood, Life, 22 Dec. (O.H.S.), I. 464. Wheras they were left of after the king was restored and *wall lectures onlie read in their places, declamations were now setled and wall lectures too. Ibid. (1691), Ath. Oxon. (1721), II. 796. He did also sometimes repair to the Ordinaries (commonly called Wall Lectures from the paucity of Auditors).
1767. J. Penn, By Way of Prevention, To Clergy p. i. Dry Morals and musty Doctrines have turned Sermons into Wall Lectures.
1860. G. E. Street, in Archæol. Cant. III. 132. A great deal of chalk is used for *wall lining.
1892. Dict. Archit. (Archit. Publ. Soc.), Wall-lining, a thin internal wall of brick for keeping dry the interior surface of a house in exposed places.
1344–5. Exch. Acc. K. R., 492. 24 (MS.). In Ml de *Walnail empt. vid. ob.
1864. Atkinson, Stanton Grange, 224. Next stood a box of shreds and wall-nails.
1673. [R. Leigh], Transp. Reh., 76. The avenue-readers, the *wall-observers, and those that are acquainted with stall-learning.
1871. T. Morris, Brit. Carpentry, 85. The situation of the *wall posts would seem to indicate a purpose of concentrating the weight.
1523. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., V. 220. Item, for ij *wall rasis put undre the cuppill feit,… Item, for v corbalis of stane, for bering to the tua wall rasis.
1627. Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., xi. 53. We say a Ship is … *wall reared when she is right built vp, after shee comes to her bearing.
1316. Placitorum Abbrev. (1811), 352. Et dicunt qd idem dñs & curia sua de Stebenhethe … ordinavit … duos homines qui vocantur *Walreves ad supervidendum wallias fossata seweras & gutteras praedicta.
1835. R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vii. 82. If the compartment be bounded by a wall as in the case of the clerestory, the rib which is placed at the intersection of the vault with the wall may be called the *Wall Rib.
1850. Inkersley, Inquir. Archit. France, 309. The union of the wall-rib-shaft … with the spring of the window-archway.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 349. On it a shaft has been sunk … showing a continuous vein with well-defined *wall-rock.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 94/2. *Wall-saltpetre or lime saltpetre, calcium nitrate, Ca (NO2)2, is found as an efflorescence on the walls of stables; it is now manufactured in large quantities.
1865. G. E. Street, Gothic Archit. Spain, ix. 191. There are three-quarter engaged *wall-shafts between the windows.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 165. *Wall-sided.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780).
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 180. A deep wall-sided valley.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxix. She was a good, substantial ship,… wall-sided and kettle-bottomed.
1866. Huxley, Prehist. Rem. Caithn., 88. The transverse contour of the skull inclines to be pentagonal and wall-sided.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 925. The *wall-straps (battens, or pieces of quartering on which to nail the laths) are to be 1 inch and a quarter thick.
1849. *Wall string [see STRING sb. 26].
1862. T. W. Higginson, Army Life (1870), 19. Two *wall-tents being placed end to end, for office and bedroom.
1894. Outing, XXIV. 86/1. We had a single wall-tent, ten by twelve.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 81/2. Section of Hollow Brick Wall, showing our patent cast and wrought *wall-ties.
1358. York Mercers, etc. (Surtees), 15. Pro xx mille de *Walteghill, vj li.
1465. in Paston Lett., II. 224. A thousand waltyle that his fadir had fro ye seide Williams wyfes place.
1790. Grose, Provinc. Gloss., Suppl., Wall-tiles, bricks; opposed to tiles, called Thack-tiles. North.
1882. Christy, Joints, 68. Wall tiles are sometimes bedded in fine plaster.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 748/7. Hoc maxillare, a *walthothe.
(? Hence) 1847. Halliwell, Wall-tooth, a large double-tooth.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VIII. 699. This war the best off all, To kepe our strynth off castell and off *wall toun.
c. 1480. Henryson, Death & Man, 7. Wal-townis, castellis, towiris, neuir so wicht, may nocht resist quhill it be at his hert.
1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, I. 66. As concerning the distance of *Wal-trees.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 42. For wall-tree cherries, plums, pears, etc. allot a portion of the earliest … varieties for south walls.
1844. Zoologist, II. 493. Another [nest] was completed in an adjoining wall-tree.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 511. We discovered arsenic in large quantity in the green unsized *wall-wash of her own sitting-room.
1596. S. Finche, Lett., 26 Feb., in Ducarel, Hist. Croydon (1783), App. 155. We have made up that angle … *wall-wyse with stone and morter.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom. (Thorpe), II. 166. Þa ʓebroðra eodon to ðam *weall-weorce.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., A vj b. Our dutie hadd bene to direct the buildyng of our Religion by this lyne and leuell, and to ramme fast the wallworkes hereof with this cemente and morter.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 468/1. Other internal walls … communicate with wall-works running east and west.
b. In the names of animals frequenting or living in walls, as wall-bee (see quot.); wall-bird, a dial. name of the Spotted Flycatcher, Muscicapa grisola; wall-brown, a common British butterfly, Satyrus megæra = brown wall (see 19 c); wall-butterfly (see quot.); wall-carpet, a variety of the carpet-moth (see CARPET sb. 5); wall-creeper (see quot. 1888); wall-fly (see quot.); wall-gecko (see quot.); wall-lizard, a lizard of the species Lacerta muralis; wall-louse, † (a) the bed-bug, Cimex lectularius; (b) dial. the woodlouse; † wall-newt, ? = wall-lizard; wall-usher, a variety of moth (see quot.); wall-wasp (see quot.).
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VIII. 94. The *Wall Bees are so called, because they make their nests in walls.
1848. Zoologist, VI. 2186. The spotted flycatcher is the *‘wall-bird.’
1846. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 171. Not a single specimen has been observed of the … *Wall Brown, or the Dark Green Aglaia.
1860. W. S. Coleman, Brit. Butterfl., 98. The *Wall Butterfly (Lasiommata Megæra). Ibid., 99. It is called the Wall Butterfly from its frequent habit of choosing a roadside wall for a perch.
1832. J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 111. The *Wall Carpet (Alcis muraria Curtis).
1667. C. Merrett, Pinax, 177. Picus murarius, the Creeper, or *Wall-Creeper.
1678. [see SPIDER-CATCHER 2].
1764. G. Edwards, Glean. Nat. Hist., III. 284. The Wall-creeper of Surinam.
1888. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 534/2. Allied to the Tree-Creeper [Certhia] … is the genus Tichodroma, the single member of which is the Wall Creeper (T. muraria) of the Alps and some other mountainous parts of Europe and Asia.
1653. Walton, Angler, ii. 54. Nay, sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly; as the Ant-fly, the Flesh-fly, or Wall-fly [cf. ed. 3 (1661), 63, the black Bee that breeds in clay walls].
1886. Cassell’s Dict., s.v. Platydactylus, P. fascicularis or muralis is the *Wall Gecko.
c. 1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 274. The lively little *Wall Lizard, Lacerta muralis.
1540. Septem Ling. Dict., D vj, Cimices … *wallyse.
1598–1657. Wall louse [see PUNAISE].
1673. [see CHINCH sb.1].
1693. S. Dale, Pharmacol., 531. Cimex … The Wall-Louse or Bugg.
1899. Cumbld. Gloss., s.v. Kirk louse, Wall louse, Slater, woodlouse, millipede. Oniscidæ.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 135. Poore Tom, that eates … the Tod-pole, the *wall-Neut, and the water.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 88. 2/1. Like the Body of a Red *Wall-Spider.
1832. J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 102. The *Wall Usher (Anisopteryx Æscularia, Stephens) appears on palings and trunks of trees the middle of March.
1881. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 372. The *Wall Wasp (Odynerus parietum) … may be almost constantly seen haunting sunny walls during the months of June and July.
c. In the names of plants growing on or by walls and in dry or stony places, as wall barley, the wild barley, Hordeum murinum; also rye-grass, Lolium perenne; wall bugloss, a plant of the genus Lycopsis; wall cabbage (see quot.); wall-cress, the genus Arabis; also (see quot. 1796); wall fern, the common evergreen fern, Polypodium vulgare; wall gillyflower, the WALLFLOWER; wall grass, the stonecrop, Sedum acre; wall hawkweed, Hieracium murorum; wall moss, (a) the yellow lichen, Parmelia parietaria (Cent. Dict.); (b) Sedum acre; (c) see quot. 1855; wall mustard = wall-rocket; wall pellitory = PELLITORY 2; † wall penny grass, wall pennywort = PENNYWORT 1; wall pepper, Sedum acre; wall pie = wall rue; wall-rocket, Diplotaxis tenuifolia; wall rue, a small fern, Asplenium Ruta-muraria; wall sage, † (a) a species of Sideritis; cf. GLIDEWORT, IRONWORT; (b) = PELLITORY 2 (Eng. Dial. Dict.); wall speedwell, Veronica arvensis; wall spleenwort = wall rue; wall weed, ? mother-of-thousands, Linaria Cymbalaria. Also WALLFLOWER, WALLWORT.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 43. Phenicea or Hordeum murinum of Plinie, is the *wal Barley, whiche groweth on mud walles.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. li. 71. Red Darnell is called … in Latin Lolium rubrum: and Lolium Murinum: in English Wall Barley.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., III. 333. The Wall barley, or way bennet, as some people improperly term it.
1866. Treas. Bot., I. 597/1. We all remember how in our youth we put inverted spikes of the Wall Barley up our sleeves and found them travel to our shoulders.
1650. [W. Howe], Phytol. Brit., 36. Echium alterum, Dod. Lycopsis Anglica, Lob. in agris siccioribus & muris. *Wall Buglosse.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Wall-Bugloss. Common name for the Lycopsis.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 593. [Brassica muralis] Sisymbrium murale. Linn. … *Wall Cabbage. Old walls and rubbish. Ibid., 589. Turritis hirsuta … *Wall Cress.
1866. Treas. Bot., 83/2. Wall-cress, the English name [of Arabis] has similar reference to the usual place of growth.
1525. Grete Herbal, cccxlix. (1529), T v. De polytryco. *Walfarne.
1639. O. Wood, Alph. Bk. Secrets, 214. Walferne.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 80. Viola alba…. There are diuerse sortes…. One is called in english Cheiry, Hertes ease or *wal Gelefloure, it groweth vpon the walles, and … hath yealowe floures.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), II. 94. The butter-flower of the meadow, and the wall gilly-flower.
1882. H. Friend, Devonsh. Plant-n., *Wall Grass. Sedum acre, L.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants (1836), 674. *Wall hawkweed.
1855. Anne Pratt, Flowering Pl., II. 324. *Wall-moss (Dicranum murale).
1886. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Wall Moss. Sedum acre L.—N. and E. Yks.
1904. *Wall-mustard [see wall-rocket].
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 169. I knowe no English name for it [Vmbilicus veneris]: but lest it should be wythout a name I call it *wall penny grasse.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xxv. 37. Cotyledon vera. *Wall Pennywurte.
1579, 1756. [see PENNYWORT 1].
1855. Anne Pratt, Flowering Pl., II. 320. Cotyledon Umbilicus (Wall Pennywort).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxvii. 115. Of Houselyke and Sengreene…. The fourth is called … in English Stone Crop,… & of some it is called *Wall Pepper.
1861. S. Thomson, Wild Flowers, III. (ed. 4), 238. We find the Sedum acre, or yellow stone-crop, often called wall-pepper.
1855. Anne Pratt, Flowering Pl., I. 152. Sinapis tenuifolia (*Wall-rocket).
1904. Westm. Gaz., 13 Oct., 10/1. This is the wall-rocket or narrow-leaved wall-mustard (Diplotaxis tenuifolia), a glaucous plant, one to one and a half feet high, with pale lemon-yellow flowers.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 86. Saluia vita or Ruta muralis … maye be called in english Stone Rue, or *wal Rue.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. iv. 243. Leaves of Wall-Rue 4 Ounces.
1906. J. Vaughan, Wild-Fl. Selborne, 92. The little wall-rue fern.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 73. Sideritis prima … may be called in englishe *walsage or stonisage.
1651. J. F[reake], Agrippa’s Occ. Philos., I. xvii. 40. Geese, Ducks, and such like watery fowle, cure themselves with the Hearb called wall-sage [L. herba sideritide].
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 13. Veronica arvensis … *Wall Speedwell.
1866. Swinburne, St. Dorothy, Poems & Ballads, 288. Green blossom cleaves To the green chinks, and lesser *wall-weed sweet, Kissing the crannies that are split with heat.
