"go to the wall" meaning in All languages combined

See go to the wall on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: en-au-go to the wall.ogg Forms: goes to the wall [present, singular, third-person], going to the wall [participle, present], went to the wall [past], gone to the wall [participle, past]
Etymology: From a fight or military retreating until they cannot escape; see have one's back to the wall and retreat to the wall doctrine in common law. Head templates: {{en-verb|go<goes,,went,gone> to the wall}} go to the wall (third-person singular simple present goes to the wall, present participle going to the wall, simple past went to the wall, past participle gone to the wall)
  1. (idiomatic) To make an all-out effort. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-OP6-Zrsk Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 51 20 22 7 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 54 19 17 10 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 70 10 13 7
  2. (idiomatic) To fail, to run out of options. (especially of a business) Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-CpPmfped
  3. To be put aside or forgotten.
    Sense id: en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-O638G5ap
  4. To take an extreme and determined position or measure.
    Sense id: en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-rnAgCKz4
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: have one's back to the wall, retreat to the wall, balls to the wall, go to the mat, up against the wall

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From a fight or military retreating until they cannot escape; see have one's back to the wall and retreat to the wall doctrine in common law.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the wall"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the wall (third-person singular simple present goes to the wall, present participle going to the wall, simple past went to the wall, past participle gone to the wall)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "18 32 33 17",
      "word": "have one's back to the wall"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "18 32 33 17",
      "word": "retreat to the wall"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "18 32 33 17",
      "word": "balls to the wall"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "18 32 33 17",
      "word": "go to the mat"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "18 32 33 17",
      "word": "up against the wall"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "51 20 22 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "54 19 17 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "70 10 13 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He'll be the one who goes to the wall when it's needed.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "He's always been willing to go to the wall for his friends.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "That was the one point he was willing to go to the wall on.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make an all-out effort."
      ],
      "id": "en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-OP6-Zrsk",
      "links": [
        [
          "all-out",
          "all-out"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To make an all-out effort."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 October 13, “Iran and its currency crisis: A comeback for the reformers?”, in The Economist:",
          "text": "That may be cold comfort for the many import-reliant businesses that have gone to the wall as a result of the rial’s recent plunge of 40% against the dollar [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fail, to run out of options. (especially of a business)"
      ],
      "id": "en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-CpPmfped",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To fail, to run out of options. (especially of a business)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To be put aside or forgotten."
      ],
      "id": "en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-O638G5ap"
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To take an extreme and determined position or measure."
      ],
      "id": "en-go_to_the_wall-en-verb-rnAgCKz4"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-go to the wall.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a3/En-au-go_to_the_wall.ogg/En-au-go_to_the_wall.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/En-au-go_to_the_wall.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the wall"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From a fight or military retreating until they cannot escape; see have one's back to the wall and retreat to the wall doctrine in common law.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the wall",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the wall"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the wall (third-person singular simple present goes to the wall, present participle going to the wall, simple past went to the wall, past participle gone to the wall)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "have one's back to the wall"
    },
    {
      "word": "retreat to the wall"
    },
    {
      "word": "balls to the wall"
    },
    {
      "word": "go to the mat"
    },
    {
      "word": "up against the wall"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He'll be the one who goes to the wall when it's needed.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "He's always been willing to go to the wall for his friends.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "That was the one point he was willing to go to the wall on.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make an all-out effort."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "all-out",
          "all-out"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To make an all-out effort."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 October 13, “Iran and its currency crisis: A comeback for the reformers?”, in The Economist:",
          "text": "That may be cold comfort for the many import-reliant businesses that have gone to the wall as a result of the rial’s recent plunge of 40% against the dollar [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fail, to run out of options. (especially of a business)"
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To fail, to run out of options. (especially of a business)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To be put aside or forgotten."
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To take an extreme and determined position or measure."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-go to the wall.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a3/En-au-go_to_the_wall.ogg/En-au-go_to_the_wall.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/En-au-go_to_the_wall.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the wall"
}

Download raw JSONL data for go to the wall meaning in All languages combined (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.