Meaning

(idiomatic) An obstruction..

Definitions by Sense

1. (idiomatic) An obstruction.
2. (idiomatic) A refusal to cooperate.
3. (idiomatic, historical) An alcoholic drink popular in colonial America, consisting of apple cider (or sometimes applejack) mixed with rum (or sometimes gin or whisky).
4. Alternative form of stone wall (“wall made of stone”).
5. (transitive) To obstruct.
6. (ambitransitive, informal) To refuse to answer or cooperate, especially in supplying information.
7. (British) Certain, definite.

Example Sentences

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.

[…] 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.

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.

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.

"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."

[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.

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]."

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).

Word Forms

• stonewalls
• stonewalling
• stonewalled

Synonyms for stone wall

Related Words

When Should You Use Stone wall?

Use stone wall when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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