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A Writer's Dictionary:

up the wall Definition


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wall
noun
    1. A solid vertical brick or stone construction serving eg as a barrier, territorial division or protection.
      Thesaurus: divider, enclosure, partition, barricade, barrier, obstacle, obstruction.
    2. The vertical side of a building or room.
    3. Fortifications.
      Form: walls
    4. Anything in some way suggestive of a wall.
      Example: a wall of fire
      Example: a wall of secrecy
    5a. biol.
      An outer covering, eg of a cell;
    5b. biol.
      The side of a hollow organ or cavity.
    6. A sheer rock face.
    7. An unsurmountable barrier such as that experienced physically and psychologically by long-distance runners.
verb walled, walling
    1. To surround something with, or as if with, a wall.
    2. To fortify something with, or as if with, a wall.
    3. To separate or enclose it with a wall.
      Example: That garden has been walled off for years
      Form: wall something off (usually)
      Form: wall something in
Derivative: walled
adj
    Idiom: go to the wall
      Said of a business: to fail or go under.
    Idiom: have one's back to the wall
      To be making one's last desperate stand.
    Idiom: up the wall
      colloq
      Angry; crazy or mad.
    Idiom: walls have ears
      A warning or advice to speak discreetly; you may be overheard anywhere.
    Etymology: Anglo-Saxon weall, from Latin vallum rampart.

    Phrasal Verb: wall something or someone up
      To block (an opening) with, or seal it or them behind, brickwork, etc.To imprison them in this way.


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