sb. Now usually as two words.
1. A wall built of stones; now esp. of rough stones without mortar, as a fence between fields, etc.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, lxi[i]. 4. Stanwalle [dative: gl. macheriæ].
c. 1205. Lay., 15846. Nulle hit nauere god … þæt þi castel stonde … ne nauere þi stan wal stille ne ligge.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 713. There was but a ston wal hem be-tweene.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 20. The stoon wal be the strete syde.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 39. Hunger perseth stone wall.
1621. in Trans. Cumb. & Westm. Archæol. Soc. (1903), III. 155. That all the Tennants … make their dike … with Stonewall Five foote high with Cape and Coble.
c. 1640[?]. Lovelace, Poems, To Althea, iv. Stone Walls doe not a Prison make.
1768. Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. 269. Hills, especially those that are fenced with stone walls.
1856. Emerson, Engl. Traits, v. Wks. (Bohn), II. 43. The last Reform-bill took away political power from a mound, a ruin, and a stone-wall, whilst Birmingham and Manchester … had no representative.
1908. [Miss E. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 21. A low stone wall and coping.
2. Australian Polit. slang. Parliamentary obstruction, or a body of obstructives: cf. stone-wall vb., etc. below.
1876. Victorian Hansard, Jan. XXII. 1387 (Morris). Mr. G. Paton Smith wished to ask … whether the six members … constituted the ‘stone wall’ … which was to oppose all progress?
1898. Daily News, 22 Oct., 2/1. The New Zealand Legislation … indulging in what is known in colonial parlance as a ‘stone wall.’
3. attrib. and Comb.
1880. ‘Brooksby,’ Hunting Countries, II. 201. Stonewall jumping. Ibid., 205. Here you get on to the stone wall country, and may not see a hedge all day.
1890. Catholic News, 20 Sept., 7/3. It displayed … the usual stone-wall stupidity.
1895. Ld. Salisbury, in Standard, 6 July, 5/2. When a Standing Committee by a stonewall majority passed every word of a Bill in spite of every attempt to amend it.
1901. Daily Chron., 29 Aug., 6/3. What excellent stone-wall jumpers almost all the horses were.
Hence Stonewall v. (a) intr., Cricket slang, to block balls persistently, to play solely on the defensive; also transf.; (b) Polit. slang, orig. and chiefly Australian, to obstruct business by lengthy speeches or otherwise, to practise obstruction; also trans. to obstruct (business). Stone-walled a., having or enclosed by a stone wall or walls. Stonewaller, one who ‘stone-walls’ (in either sense). Stone-walling vbl. sb. (a) the process of walling with stone; concr. (usually as two words) stone walls collectively, or a length of stone wall; (b) Cricket and Polit. slang, persistent blocking or obstruction (see stonewall vb. above); also attrib. Stone-walling ppl. a., that ‘stonewalls,’ obstructive.
1889. Played On, 34. A brother professional … began to *stonewall in a distracting manner. ‘Take care of your wicket and let the runs take care of themselves,’ was his motto.
1914. Daily News, 15 April, 9. Complaint that the Church has been too long stone-walling was made at the annual conference of the Wesley Guild.
1916. Viscount Wolmer, in Contemp. Rev., Nov., 576. Obstruction did not merely consist in stone-walling Government business, it rapidly grew to the art of blocking all business.
1786. G. Frazer, Dove’s Flight, 41. She takes her flight to her *stone-walled refuge.
1891. Field, 7 March, 345/3. Barchard in goal … showed marvellous stopping powers…. In him the North possess a regular *‘stonewaller.’
1799. A. Young, View Agric. Lincoln., 32. 518 yards of chopped *stone walling.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 388/2. Over this structure there was clearly another … as extensive remains of fine stone-walling still exist.
1880. Gentl. Mag., Jan., 64. If *‘stone-walling’ tactics are adopted by the oppositionists.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Sept., 1/2. It is for cricket such as this … that the opponents of stone-walling sigh.
1902. Daily Chron., 23 April, 3/2. Of ‘stone-walling’ cricketers, Lord Granville [Gordon] entertains a very poor opinion.
