To give someone the wall is a phrase seen from the 1530s, it describes walking on the wall side of the pavement which, at the time, would have been cleaner.
Nobody went ‘up the wall’ before 1951.
Nothing was described as ‘off the wall’ until 1966.
Not until 1933 did anyone go ‘over the wall’.
Wall Street has described the financial world in the US since 1836. It was the street running along the inside of the defensive wall when New York was New Amsterdam and a Dutch colonial town.
Wall-to-wall is a practical sense has only been in use since 1939; and in the disparaging sense since 1967.
Wall-eyed, a term I have never heard but apparently means ‘speckle-eyed’ (again something I’ve never seen), has been in use since the early 14th century.
Hole in the wall has been a pub name for around three centuries, likely began to refer to a very small place. It was applied to the place where refreshment was handed to coach drivers and guards during the era of the coaching inns, they would also log the time here, too. It was an early reference to an ATM in Britain.
Wallflower, he or she who has no dance partner (unlike me, not always by choice) dates from 1820.
Firewall was originally used to refer to a firefighting defence, first used in 1851, but was reborn in the computer sense in 1990.
Modern builders have referred to a ‘drywall’ since 1952, but the reference to a wall constructed without mortar has been around since 1778.
Wallpaper was coined in 1827 – and hopefully will soon die off completely.
Wallboarding made its debut in 1912.
Stonewall has meant 'to prevent or bar' since the early 18th century.
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