walls have ears Definition

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.