Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

2 N‑COUNT A walker is a special kind of frame which is designed to help babies or people who are ill or who have a disability to walk. □  She eventually used a cane, then a walker, and finally was confined to the house.

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