walkie-talkie /wɔː ki tɔː ki/ (walkie-talkies ) N‑COUNT A walkie-talkie is a small portable radio which you can talk into and hear messages through so that you can communicate with someone far away.
walk|ing /wɔː k I ŋ/
1 N‑UNCOUNT Walking is the activity of taking walks for exercise or pleasure, especially in the country. □ Recently I've started to do a lot of walking and cycling. □ …a walking holiday.
2 ADJ [ADJ n] You can use walking in expressions like a walking disaster or a walking dictionary in order to emphasize, for example, that someone causes a lot of disasters, or knows a lot of difficult words. [HUMOROUS , EMPHASIS ] □ He was a walking encyclopaedia.
wa lk|ing stick (walking sticks ) N‑COUNT A walking stick is a long wooden stick which a person can lean on while walking.
Walk|man /wɔː kmən/ (Walkmans ) N‑COUNT A Walkman is a small cassette player with light headphones which people carry around so that they can listen to music, for example while they are travelling. [TRADEMARK ]
wa lk of li fe (walks of life ) N‑COUNT [usu pl] The walk of life that you come from is the position that you have in society and the kind of job you have. □ One of the greatest pleasures of this job is meeting people from all walks of life.
wa lk-on ADJ [ADJ n] A walk-on part in a play or film is a very small part which usually does not involve any speaking. □ He and his family have walk-on parts in the latest film.
walk|out /wɔː kaʊt/ (walkouts )
1 N‑COUNT A walkout is a strike.
2 N‑COUNT If there is a walkout during a meeting, some or all of the people attending it leave in order to show their disapproval of something that has happened at the meeting. □ The commission's proceedings have been wrecked by tantrums and walkouts.
walk|over /wɔː koʊvə r / (walkovers ) N‑COUNT [usu sing] If you say that a competition or contest is a walkover , you mean that it is won very easily.
wa lk-up (walk-ups ) N‑COUNT A walk-up is a tall apartment block which has no lift. You can also refer to an apartment in such a block as a walk-up . [AM ] □ She lives in a tiny fifth floor walk-up in New York's East Village.
walk|way /wɔː kwe I / (walkways ) N‑COUNT A walkway is a passage or path for people to walk along. Walkways are often raised above the ground.
wall ◆◆◆ /wɔː l/ (walls )
1 N‑COUNT A wall is one of the vertical sides of a building or room. □ [+ of ] Kathryn leaned against the wall of the church. □ The bedroom walls would be painted light blue. □ She checked the wall clock. ● -walled COMB □ …a glass-walled elevator.
2 N‑COUNT 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.
3 N‑COUNT The wall of something that is hollow is its side. □ [+ of ] He ran his fingers along the inside walls of the box.
4 N‑COUNT A wall of something is a large amount of it forming a high vertical barrier. □ [+ of ] She gazed at the wall of books. □ [+ of ] I was just hit by a wall of water.
5 N‑COUNT You can describe something as a wall of a particular kind when it acts as a barrier and prevents people from understanding something. □ [+ of ] The police say they met the usual wall of silence.
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 PHRASE [usu cont] 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 , EMPHASIS ] □ 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.
8 PHRASE 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.
9 PHRASE If you say that something or someone is driving you up the wall , you are emphasizing that they annoy and irritate you. [INFORMAL , EMPHASIS ] □ The heat is driving me up the wall. □ I sang in the bath and drove my parents up the wall.
10 PHRASE 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.
11 a fly on the wall → see fly
12 the writing is on the wall → see writing
▸ wall in PHRASAL VERB [usu passive] If someone or something is walled in , they are surrounded or enclosed by a wall or barrier. □ [be V -ed P ] He is walled in by a mountain of papers in his cluttered Broadway office.
wal|la|by /wɒ ləbi/ (wallabies ) N‑COUNT A wallaby is an animal similar to a small kangaroo. Wallabies live in Australia and New Guinea.
wall|covering /wɔː lkʌvər I ŋ/ (wallcoverings ) also wall covering N‑VAR A wallcovering is a material such as wallpaper that is used to decorate the walls on the inside of a building.
walled /wɔː ld/ ADJ If an area of land or a city is walled , it is surrounded or enclosed by a wall. □ …a walled rose garden.