See stonewall in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for stonewall meaning in English (21.2kB)
{
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "stonwal"
},
"expansion": "Middle English stonwal",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stone wall"
},
"expansion": "stone wall",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stanewalle",
"t": "wall made of stone"
},
"expansion": "stanewalle (“wall made of stone”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "stānweall",
"t": "stonewall"
},
"expansion": "Old English stānweall (“stonewall”)",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "stone",
"3": "wall"
},
"expansion": "stone + wall",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Middle English stonwal, stone wall, stanewalle (“wall made of stone”), from Old English stānweall (“stonewall”), equivalent to stone + wall. The alcoholic drink (sense 3) was perhaps named thus because its effect was as potent as running into a stone wall.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "stonewalls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "stonewall (plural stonewalls)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"stone‧wall"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1899 July 25, Richard John Seddon (Premier of New Zealand), “Old-age Pensions Act”, in New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates. Fourth Session, Thirteenth Parliament. Legislative Council and House of Representatives, volumes 107 (Comprising the Period from July 20 to August 10, 1899), Wellington: By authority; John Mackay, government printer, →OCLC, page 112, column 2",
"text": "That was what was causing the Government to hesitate in bringing down the Bill. There would be so many amendments proposed, and so many stonewalls erected, that much time would be occupied, and, that being so, he felt he must go on with other business first.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1957 June, George Langelaan, “The Fly”, in Playboy, Chicago, Ill.: Playboy Enterprises, →OCLC; republished as “The Fly”, in Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan, editors, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, London: Robinson, Constable & Robinson, 2012",
"text": "[…] I suddenly realized that here was the opening I had been searching for and perhaps even the possibility of striking a great blow, a blow perhaps powerful enough to shatter her stonewall defence, be it sane or insane.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1985, Richard Holmes, chapter 1, in Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer, London: Hodder & Stoughton; republished London: Penguin Books, 1985, part 1 (1964: Travels), page 14",
"text": "Our conversation took place in a sort of no-man's land of irregular French. M. Crèspy's patois and Midi twang battled for meaning against my stonewall classroom phrases.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An obstruction."
],
"id": "en-stonewall-en-noun-QonjSYZ3",
"links": [
[
"obstruction",
"obstruction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An obstruction."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1923 February 17, William Ferguson Massey (Prime Minister of New Zealand), “Order of Business”, in New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates. First Session, Twenty-first Parliament. Legislative Council and House of Representatives, volumes 199 (Comprising the Period from February 7 to February 17, 1923), Wellington: By authority; W. A. G. Skinner, government printer, →OCLC, page 362, column 1",
"text": "If it was in order to use the word \"stonewalling,\" I would say your stonewall has come to an end; but it is not in order. I would suggest that we bring the proceedings to an end decently, and if the obstruction is not to go on, then I think the proper thing for me to do is to move the ordinary motion, that the House do now adjourn, and let it go without any further talk.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017, Elodia Strain, chapter 15, in The Dating Experiment, Springville, Utah: Sweetwater Books, Cedar Fort, Inc.",
"text": "\"Okay,\" I said sarcastically, while inside wondering what she was picking up on. / \"Anyway,\" she said, sensing my stonewall, \"I was just checking out the Pine Needlers' Facebook Page again, and you guys are killing it. Killing it with kindness as they say.\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A refusal to cooperate."
],
"id": "en-stonewall-en-noun-EiulUx2x",
"links": [
[
"refusal",
"refusal"
],
[
"cooperate",
"cooperate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A refusal to cooperate."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "0 94 2 3",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "refusal to cooperate",
"word": "tergiversar"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "30 0 3 31 26 1 8",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "35 1 4 35 18 1 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1868 March 17, James McGrigor Allan, “Europeans, and Their Descendants in North America”, in Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, volume VI, London: Trübner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page cxxxvi",
"text": "[W]e are at a loss to \"calculate\" the ingredients which enter into such mysterious compounds as \"apple-jack,\" \"white nose,\" \"stonewall,\" chain-lightning,\" \"railroad,\" \"rattle-snake,\" \"back-straightener,\" \"corpse-reviver,\" \"moral suasion,\" \"bottomless-pit,\" \"sabbath-calm,\" etc.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, John J. Duffy, H. Nicholas Muller, III, “Confused Accounts of Ethan Allen’s Death: Later Accounts Compound the Story”, in Inventing Ethan Allen, Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, page 12",
"text": "One highly imaginative account claims the throng told stories through the night in drunken outbursts of wild revelry. As if quoting from a house menu of early American alcoholic drinks, rather than reporting an eyewitness account, this version tells us they \"guzzled nobly of punch, of flip, and downed the inevitable stonewalls [a mixture of whiskey or rum and cider].\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Eva-Sabine Zehelein, “‘Been to Barbados’: Rum(bullion), Race, the Gaspée and the American Revolution”, in Susanne Schmid, Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp, editors, Drink in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Perspectives in Economic and Social History; no. 29), London: Pickering & Chatto Publishers; republished Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016, page 144",
"text": "When members of the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia's City Tavern, they […] ordered, one must assume, a broad variety of drinks, such as the mimbo (shavings from a sugarloaf, rum and water), the sling (two parts water to one part rum), the bombo (which uses molasses instead of sugar, rum and water), the punch, or the calibogus (spruce beer and rum), a flip, a blackstrap (a mix with molasses), or a stonewall (a mix with cider).",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An alcoholic drink popular in colonial America, consisting of apple cider (or sometimes applejack) mixed with rum (or sometimes gin or whisky)."
],
"id": "en-stonewall-en-noun-LoiUpeKO",
"links": [
[
"alcoholic",
"alcoholic#Adjective"
],
[
"drink",
"drink#Noun"
],
[
"popular",
"popular"
],
[
"colonial",
"colonial#Adjective"
],
[
"America",
"America"
],
[
"apple cider",
"apple cider"
],
[
"applejack",
"applejack"
],
[
"rum",
"rum#Noun"
],
[
"gin",
"gin#Noun"
],
[
"whisky",
"whisky"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, historical) An alcoholic drink popular in colonial America, consisting of apple cider (or sometimes applejack) mixed with rum (or sometimes gin or whisky)."
],
"tags": [
"historical",
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"alt_of": [
{
"extra": "wall made of stone",
"word": "stone wall"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "30 0 3 31 26 1 8",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "35 1 4 35 18 1 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "16 1 2 16 60 1 3",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Walls and fences",
"orig": "en:Walls and fences",
"parents": [
"Buildings and structures",
"Architecture",
"Applied sciences",
"Art",
"Sciences",
"Culture",
"All topics",
"Society",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1883, Brooksby [pseudonym; Edward Pennell-Elmhirst], “The Bedale”, in The Hunting Countries of England, Their Facilities, Character, and Requirements. A Guide to Hunting Men, volumes II (parts IV., V., and VI.), London: Horace Cox, \"The Field\" Office, 346, Strand, W.C., →OCLC, part IV, page 122",
"text": "The grass looks tempting, and the stonewalls seem built to jump; but the farther west we get, the more rugged become the hillsides and the more broken the beds of the stream, till the scene becomes more akin to the home of the chamois than of the fox. The stonewalls grow higher, stronger, and more frequent, as you rise from the low country and get more fully among the sheepwalks.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1906, John P. Nicholson, Charles A. Richardson, L[unsford] L[indsay] Lomax, “Report of the Gettysburg National Park Commission”, in Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1906, volumes IV (Milita Affairs; Military Schools and Colleges; and Military Parks), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 312",
"text": "Stonewalls have been rebuilt along the piked portion of Taneytown road, along the east end of North Confederate avenue, and along Taneytown road south of Pleasonton avenue.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Derek Pomeroy Brereton, “Appendix 4: The Old Stone Walls of New Hampshire”, in Campsteading: Family, Place, and Experience at Squam Lake, New Hampshire, Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, page 225",
"text": "In the present day, New England's stonewalls are the lineaments of her former agrarian vitality. They outline what used to be farm roads, fields, barnyards, pens, cellars, dooryards, empoundments, millraces, bridges, culverts, and graves. […] Stonewalls both preserve and evince the structuring presence of the past. They offer weft to the warp of the land.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011 December 9, Jack Mitchell, chapter 11, in Angels of the Anasazi, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, page 140",
"text": "Some had suggested that they build sloped stonewalls the entire length of the streambed. The stonewalls would keep the rushing water in a channel and prevent soil from washing away from the streambed walls.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Walter G. Robillard, Clark on Surveying and Boundaries: 2012 Cumulative Supplement, 7th edition, Charlottesville, Va.: LexisNexis",
"text": "There are remnants of a stonewall at the elm tree on Burrough Road. The aerial photograph shows the existence of a stonewall at the elm tree at least in 1964.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Alternative form of stone wall (“wall made of stone”)."
],
"id": "en-stonewall-en-noun-NNDSu-qf",
"links": [
[
"stone wall",
"stone wall#English"
]
],
"tags": [
"alt-of",
"alternative"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈstəʊnwɔːl/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɔl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɑl/",
"tags": [
"Canada",
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg/En-us-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"General-American"
],
"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg/En-au-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Oxford University Press"
],
"word": "stonewall"
}
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "stonewaller"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"tags": [
"noun"
],
"word": "stonewalling"
}
],
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "stonwal"
},
"expansion": "Middle English stonwal",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stone wall"
},
"expansion": "stone wall",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stanewalle",
"t": "wall made of stone"
},
"expansion": "stanewalle (“wall made of stone”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "stānweall",
"t": "stonewall"
},
"expansion": "Old English stānweall (“stonewall”)",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "stone",
"3": "wall"
},
"expansion": "stone + wall",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Middle English stonwal, stone wall, stanewalle (“wall made of stone”), from Old English stānweall (“stonewall”), equivalent to stone + wall. The alcoholic drink (sense 3) was perhaps named thus because its effect was as potent as running into a stone wall.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "stonewalls",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "stonewalling",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "stonewalled",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "stonewalled",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "stonewall (third-person singular simple present stonewalls, present participle stonewalling, simple past and past participle stonewalled)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"stone‧wall"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1876 January–October, “Public Affairs”, in The Melbourne Review, volume 1, Melbourne, Vic.: Samuel Mullen, 55 & 57 Collins Street East, →OCLC, page 244",
"text": "Either the thing to be stonewalled must be itself a bad thing, or it must be stonewalled as the only means of preventing some other wrong being committed; obviously, paying the public creditor was no wrong, and the budget, if wrong, could be effectually obstructed by stonewalling the financial resolutions.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To obstruct."
],
"id": "en-stonewall-en-verb-Cz2U2Fs4",
"links": [
[
"obstruct",
"obstruct"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive) To obstruct."
],
"tags": [
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "At the press conference, the Prime Minister appeared to be stonewalling when asked about tax increases.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1996, Daniel Goleman, “Intimate Enemies”, in Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, paperback edition, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, part 3 (Emotional Intelligence Applied), page 141",
"text": "As he becomes defensive or stonewalls in return, she feels frustrated and angry, and so adds contempt to underscore the strength of her frustration. As her husband finds himself the object of his wife's criticism and contempt, he begins to fall into the innocent-victim or righteous-indignation thoughts that more and more easily trigger flooding. To protect himself from flooding, he becomes more and more defensive or simply stonewalls altogether. But when husbands stonewall, remember, it triggers flooding in their wives, who feel completely stymied.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 June 4, John Naughton, “Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins by Garry Kasparov – review”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Even so, the rematch was a cliffhanger. It was marked by Kasparov’s increasing anger and frustration at the behaviour of IBM, which stonewalled against his requests for printouts of the machine’s logs of completed games.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022 April 20, Mariella Rudi, “Tostitos Hint of Lime has zero lime – but it’s still the perfect chip”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Two weeks later, they said they were unable to provide answers and politely passed on the opportunity to talk to me. / It’s unclear why they stonewalled me; maybe the recent lawsuits have executives tight-lipped.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 September 30, Hannah Murphy, “The wildest job in Silicon Valley”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 18",
"text": "The silence that follows begins to feel awkward. It's one of several moments where Yaccarino stonewalls.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To refuse to answer or cooperate, especially in supplying information."
],
"id": "en-stonewall-en-verb-~JXpWehc",
"links": [
[
"transitive",
"transitive"
],
[
"intransitive",
"intransitive"
],
[
"refuse",
"refuse#Verb"
],
[
"answer",
"answer#Verb"
],
[
"cooperate",
"cooperate"
],
[
"supplying",
"supply#Verb"
],
[
"information",
"information"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, intransitive, informal) To refuse to answer or cooperate, especially in supplying information."
],
"tags": [
"informal",
"intransitive",
"transitive"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "betonneren"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "bétonner"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "abblocken"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "mauern"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "elzárkózik"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "entorpecer"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "rehusarse a cooperar"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 98",
"code": "tl",
"lang": "Tagalog",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "dedma"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈstəʊnwɔːl/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɔl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɑl/",
"tags": [
"Canada",
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg/En-us-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"General-American"
],
"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg/En-au-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Oxford University Press"
],
"word": "stonewall"
}
{
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "stone cold"
},
"expansion": "stone cold",
"name": "m"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Apparently a corruption of stone cold.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "stonewall (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"stone‧wall"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "British English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "30 0 3 31 26 1 8",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "35 1 4 35 18 1 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2007 February 19, Martin Smith, “Fabregas factor helps Blackburn”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 2011-05-15",
"text": "Fortune favoured the fortunate when Martin Atkinson ignored a stonewall penalty.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011 January 13, Gordon Parks, “Celtic boss Neil Lennon in new blast at referees after ‘offside’ goal sees two more points dropped in SPL title race”, in Daily Record, Glasgow, archived from the original on 2016-04-07",
"text": "[Neil] Lennon also pointed to a booking for Niall McGinn for diving as a stonewall penalty to add to his grievances.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Certain, definite."
],
"id": "en-stonewall-en-adj-kB1PoV7~",
"links": [
[
"Certain",
"certain"
],
[
"definite",
"definite"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(British, idiomatic) Certain, definite."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "stone cold"
}
],
"tags": [
"British",
"idiomatic",
"not-comparable"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "certain, definite",
"word": "vuorenvarma"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈstəʊnwɔːl/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɔl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɑl/",
"tags": [
"Canada",
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg/En-us-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"General-American"
],
"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg/En-au-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "stonewall"
}
{
"categories": [
"English 2-syllable words",
"English adjectives",
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English terms derived from Middle English",
"English terms derived from Old English",
"English terms inherited from Middle English",
"English terms inherited from Old English",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncomparable adjectives",
"English verbs",
"en:Walls and fences"
],
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "stonwal"
},
"expansion": "Middle English stonwal",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stone wall"
},
"expansion": "stone wall",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stanewalle",
"t": "wall made of stone"
},
"expansion": "stanewalle (“wall made of stone”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "stānweall",
"t": "stonewall"
},
"expansion": "Old English stānweall (“stonewall”)",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "stone",
"3": "wall"
},
"expansion": "stone + wall",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Middle English stonwal, stone wall, stanewalle (“wall made of stone”), from Old English stānweall (“stonewall”), equivalent to stone + wall. The alcoholic drink (sense 3) was perhaps named thus because its effect was as potent as running into a stone wall.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "stonewalls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "stonewall (plural stonewalls)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"stone‧wall"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1899 July 25, Richard John Seddon (Premier of New Zealand), “Old-age Pensions Act”, in New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates. Fourth Session, Thirteenth Parliament. Legislative Council and House of Representatives, volumes 107 (Comprising the Period from July 20 to August 10, 1899), Wellington: By authority; John Mackay, government printer, →OCLC, page 112, column 2",
"text": "That was what was causing the Government to hesitate in bringing down the Bill. There would be so many amendments proposed, and so many stonewalls erected, that much time would be occupied, and, that being so, he felt he must go on with other business first.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1957 June, George Langelaan, “The Fly”, in Playboy, Chicago, Ill.: Playboy Enterprises, →OCLC; republished as “The Fly”, in Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan, editors, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, London: Robinson, Constable & Robinson, 2012",
"text": "[…] I suddenly realized that here was the opening I had been searching for and perhaps even the possibility of striking a great blow, a blow perhaps powerful enough to shatter her stonewall defence, be it sane or insane.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1985, Richard Holmes, chapter 1, in Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer, London: Hodder & Stoughton; republished London: Penguin Books, 1985, part 1 (1964: Travels), page 14",
"text": "Our conversation took place in a sort of no-man's land of irregular French. M. Crèspy's patois and Midi twang battled for meaning against my stonewall classroom phrases.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An obstruction."
],
"links": [
[
"obstruction",
"obstruction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An obstruction."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1923 February 17, William Ferguson Massey (Prime Minister of New Zealand), “Order of Business”, in New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates. First Session, Twenty-first Parliament. Legislative Council and House of Representatives, volumes 199 (Comprising the Period from February 7 to February 17, 1923), Wellington: By authority; W. A. G. Skinner, government printer, →OCLC, page 362, column 1",
"text": "If it was in order to use the word \"stonewalling,\" I would say your stonewall has come to an end; but it is not in order. I would suggest that we bring the proceedings to an end decently, and if the obstruction is not to go on, then I think the proper thing for me to do is to move the ordinary motion, that the House do now adjourn, and let it go without any further talk.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017, Elodia Strain, chapter 15, in The Dating Experiment, Springville, Utah: Sweetwater Books, Cedar Fort, Inc.",
"text": "\"Okay,\" I said sarcastically, while inside wondering what she was picking up on. / \"Anyway,\" she said, sensing my stonewall, \"I was just checking out the Pine Needlers' Facebook Page again, and you guys are killing it. Killing it with kindness as they say.\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A refusal to cooperate."
],
"links": [
[
"refusal",
"refusal"
],
[
"cooperate",
"cooperate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A refusal to cooperate."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with historical senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1868 March 17, James McGrigor Allan, “Europeans, and Their Descendants in North America”, in Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, volume VI, London: Trübner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page cxxxvi",
"text": "[W]e are at a loss to \"calculate\" the ingredients which enter into such mysterious compounds as \"apple-jack,\" \"white nose,\" \"stonewall,\" chain-lightning,\" \"railroad,\" \"rattle-snake,\" \"back-straightener,\" \"corpse-reviver,\" \"moral suasion,\" \"bottomless-pit,\" \"sabbath-calm,\" etc.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, John J. Duffy, H. Nicholas Muller, III, “Confused Accounts of Ethan Allen’s Death: Later Accounts Compound the Story”, in Inventing Ethan Allen, Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, page 12",
"text": "One highly imaginative account claims the throng told stories through the night in drunken outbursts of wild revelry. As if quoting from a house menu of early American alcoholic drinks, rather than reporting an eyewitness account, this version tells us they \"guzzled nobly of punch, of flip, and downed the inevitable stonewalls [a mixture of whiskey or rum and cider].\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Eva-Sabine Zehelein, “‘Been to Barbados’: Rum(bullion), Race, the Gaspée and the American Revolution”, in Susanne Schmid, Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp, editors, Drink in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Perspectives in Economic and Social History; no. 29), London: Pickering & Chatto Publishers; republished Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016, page 144",
"text": "When members of the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia's City Tavern, they […] ordered, one must assume, a broad variety of drinks, such as the mimbo (shavings from a sugarloaf, rum and water), the sling (two parts water to one part rum), the bombo (which uses molasses instead of sugar, rum and water), the punch, or the calibogus (spruce beer and rum), a flip, a blackstrap (a mix with molasses), or a stonewall (a mix with cider).",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An alcoholic drink popular in colonial America, consisting of apple cider (or sometimes applejack) mixed with rum (or sometimes gin or whisky)."
],
"links": [
[
"alcoholic",
"alcoholic#Adjective"
],
[
"drink",
"drink#Noun"
],
[
"popular",
"popular"
],
[
"colonial",
"colonial#Adjective"
],
[
"America",
"America"
],
[
"apple cider",
"apple cider"
],
[
"applejack",
"applejack"
],
[
"rum",
"rum#Noun"
],
[
"gin",
"gin#Noun"
],
[
"whisky",
"whisky"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, historical) An alcoholic drink popular in colonial America, consisting of apple cider (or sometimes applejack) mixed with rum (or sometimes gin or whisky)."
],
"tags": [
"historical",
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"alt_of": [
{
"extra": "wall made of stone",
"word": "stone wall"
}
],
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1883, Brooksby [pseudonym; Edward Pennell-Elmhirst], “The Bedale”, in The Hunting Countries of England, Their Facilities, Character, and Requirements. A Guide to Hunting Men, volumes II (parts IV., V., and VI.), London: Horace Cox, \"The Field\" Office, 346, Strand, W.C., →OCLC, part IV, page 122",
"text": "The grass looks tempting, and the stonewalls seem built to jump; but the farther west we get, the more rugged become the hillsides and the more broken the beds of the stream, till the scene becomes more akin to the home of the chamois than of the fox. The stonewalls grow higher, stronger, and more frequent, as you rise from the low country and get more fully among the sheepwalks.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1906, John P. Nicholson, Charles A. Richardson, L[unsford] L[indsay] Lomax, “Report of the Gettysburg National Park Commission”, in Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1906, volumes IV (Milita Affairs; Military Schools and Colleges; and Military Parks), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 312",
"text": "Stonewalls have been rebuilt along the piked portion of Taneytown road, along the east end of North Confederate avenue, and along Taneytown road south of Pleasonton avenue.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Derek Pomeroy Brereton, “Appendix 4: The Old Stone Walls of New Hampshire”, in Campsteading: Family, Place, and Experience at Squam Lake, New Hampshire, Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, page 225",
"text": "In the present day, New England's stonewalls are the lineaments of her former agrarian vitality. They outline what used to be farm roads, fields, barnyards, pens, cellars, dooryards, empoundments, millraces, bridges, culverts, and graves. […] Stonewalls both preserve and evince the structuring presence of the past. They offer weft to the warp of the land.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011 December 9, Jack Mitchell, chapter 11, in Angels of the Anasazi, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, page 140",
"text": "Some had suggested that they build sloped stonewalls the entire length of the streambed. The stonewalls would keep the rushing water in a channel and prevent soil from washing away from the streambed walls.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Walter G. Robillard, Clark on Surveying and Boundaries: 2012 Cumulative Supplement, 7th edition, Charlottesville, Va.: LexisNexis",
"text": "There are remnants of a stonewall at the elm tree on Burrough Road. The aerial photograph shows the existence of a stonewall at the elm tree at least in 1964.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Alternative form of stone wall (“wall made of stone”)."
],
"links": [
[
"stone wall",
"stone wall#English"
]
],
"tags": [
"alt-of",
"alternative"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈstəʊnwɔːl/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɔl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɑl/",
"tags": [
"Canada",
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg/En-us-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"General-American"
],
"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg/En-au-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "refusal to cooperate",
"word": "tergiversar"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Oxford University Press"
],
"word": "stonewall"
}
{
"categories": [
"English 2-syllable words",
"English adjectives",
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English terms derived from Middle English",
"English terms derived from Old English",
"English terms inherited from Middle English",
"English terms inherited from Old English",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncomparable adjectives",
"English verbs",
"en:Walls and fences"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "stonewaller"
},
{
"tags": [
"noun"
],
"word": "stonewalling"
}
],
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "stonwal"
},
"expansion": "Middle English stonwal",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stone wall"
},
"expansion": "stone wall",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "stanewalle",
"t": "wall made of stone"
},
"expansion": "stanewalle (“wall made of stone”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "stānweall",
"t": "stonewall"
},
"expansion": "Old English stānweall (“stonewall”)",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "stone",
"3": "wall"
},
"expansion": "stone + wall",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Middle English stonwal, stone wall, stanewalle (“wall made of stone”), from Old English stānweall (“stonewall”), equivalent to stone + wall. The alcoholic drink (sense 3) was perhaps named thus because its effect was as potent as running into a stone wall.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "stonewalls",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "stonewalling",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "stonewalled",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "stonewalled",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "stonewall (third-person singular simple present stonewalls, present participle stonewalling, simple past and past participle stonewalled)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"stone‧wall"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1876 January–October, “Public Affairs”, in The Melbourne Review, volume 1, Melbourne, Vic.: Samuel Mullen, 55 & 57 Collins Street East, →OCLC, page 244",
"text": "Either the thing to be stonewalled must be itself a bad thing, or it must be stonewalled as the only means of preventing some other wrong being committed; obviously, paying the public creditor was no wrong, and the budget, if wrong, could be effectually obstructed by stonewalling the financial resolutions.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To obstruct."
],
"links": [
[
"obstruct",
"obstruct"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive) To obstruct."
],
"tags": [
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English informal terms",
"English intransitive verbs",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"English transitive verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "At the press conference, the Prime Minister appeared to be stonewalling when asked about tax increases.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1996, Daniel Goleman, “Intimate Enemies”, in Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, paperback edition, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, part 3 (Emotional Intelligence Applied), page 141",
"text": "As he becomes defensive or stonewalls in return, she feels frustrated and angry, and so adds contempt to underscore the strength of her frustration. As her husband finds himself the object of his wife's criticism and contempt, he begins to fall into the innocent-victim or righteous-indignation thoughts that more and more easily trigger flooding. To protect himself from flooding, he becomes more and more defensive or simply stonewalls altogether. But when husbands stonewall, remember, it triggers flooding in their wives, who feel completely stymied.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 June 4, John Naughton, “Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins by Garry Kasparov – review”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Even so, the rematch was a cliffhanger. It was marked by Kasparov’s increasing anger and frustration at the behaviour of IBM, which stonewalled against his requests for printouts of the machine’s logs of completed games.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022 April 20, Mariella Rudi, “Tostitos Hint of Lime has zero lime – but it’s still the perfect chip”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Two weeks later, they said they were unable to provide answers and politely passed on the opportunity to talk to me. / It’s unclear why they stonewalled me; maybe the recent lawsuits have executives tight-lipped.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 September 30, Hannah Murphy, “The wildest job in Silicon Valley”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 18",
"text": "The silence that follows begins to feel awkward. It's one of several moments where Yaccarino stonewalls.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To refuse to answer or cooperate, especially in supplying information."
],
"links": [
[
"transitive",
"transitive"
],
[
"intransitive",
"intransitive"
],
[
"refuse",
"refuse#Verb"
],
[
"answer",
"answer#Verb"
],
[
"cooperate",
"cooperate"
],
[
"supplying",
"supply#Verb"
],
[
"information",
"information"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, intransitive, informal) To refuse to answer or cooperate, especially in supplying information."
],
"tags": [
"informal",
"intransitive",
"transitive"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈstəʊnwɔːl/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɔl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɑl/",
"tags": [
"Canada",
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg/En-us-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"General-American"
],
"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg/En-au-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "betonneren"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "bétonner"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "abblocken"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "mauern"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "elzárkózik"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "entorpecer"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "rehusarse a cooperar"
},
{
"code": "tl",
"lang": "Tagalog",
"sense": "to refuse to answer or cooperate",
"word": "dedma"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Oxford University Press"
],
"word": "stonewall"
}
{
"categories": [
"English 2-syllable words",
"English adjectives",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncomparable adjectives",
"en:Walls and fences"
],
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "stone cold"
},
"expansion": "stone cold",
"name": "m"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Apparently a corruption of stone cold.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "stonewall (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"stone‧wall"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"British English",
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2007 February 19, Martin Smith, “Fabregas factor helps Blackburn”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 2011-05-15",
"text": "Fortune favoured the fortunate when Martin Atkinson ignored a stonewall penalty.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011 January 13, Gordon Parks, “Celtic boss Neil Lennon in new blast at referees after ‘offside’ goal sees two more points dropped in SPL title race”, in Daily Record, Glasgow, archived from the original on 2016-04-07",
"text": "[Neil] Lennon also pointed to a booking for Niall McGinn for diving as a stonewall penalty to add to his grievances.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Certain, definite."
],
"links": [
[
"Certain",
"certain"
],
[
"definite",
"definite"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(British, idiomatic) Certain, definite."
],
"tags": [
"British",
"idiomatic",
"not-comparable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈstəʊnwɔːl/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɔl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈstoʊnwɑl/",
"tags": [
"Canada",
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg/En-us-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/En-us-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"General-American"
],
"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-stonewall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg/En-au-stonewall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-stonewall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "stone cold"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "certain, definite",
"word": "vuorenvarma"
}
],
"word": "stonewall"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). 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.