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stonewall

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stonewall¹

  • /ˈstəʊnwɔːl/ UK
  • /ˈstoʊnwɔl/ US
  • /ˈstoʊnwɑl/ cot caught merger

Where it comes from

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.

noun stonewalls

  1. idiomatic An obstruction. 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.
  2. idiomatic A refusal to cooperate. 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 motio
  3. historical, idiomatic An alcoholic drink popular in colonial America, consisting of apple cider (or sometimes applejack) mixed with rum (or sometimes gin or whisky). [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.
  4. alternative Alternative form of stone wall (“wall made of stone”). 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 f

verb stonewalls · stonewalling · stonewalled

  1. transitive To obstruct. 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 resol
  2. ambitransitive, informal To refuse to answer or cooperate, especially in supplying information. At the press conference, the Prime Minister appeared to be stonewalling when asked about tax increases.

stonewall²

  • /ˈstəʊnwɔːl/ UK
  • /ˈstoʊnwɔl/ US
  • /ˈstoʊnwɑl/ cot caught merger

Where it comes from

Apparently a corruption of stone cold.

adjective

  1. UK, not comparable Certain, definite. Fortune favoured the fortunate when Martin Atkinson ignored a stonewall penalty.

    Similar: stone cold

Stonewall³

Where it comes from

From stone + wall. The drink is so named because its effect is likened to running into a stone wall. The riots take their name from the Stonewall Inn where they began (in the 1840s, the property was called Bonnie's Stone Wall, later renamed to Bonnie's Stonewall Inn, then the Stonewall Inn Restaurant, and then the Stonewall Inn). The Confederate general acquired his nickname after a battle in which, while other troops were in motion, fellow general Barnard E. Bee observed "there stands Jackson like a stone wall" (either resolutely, or unhelpfully). The chess setup is so named because it is a solid formation which is hard to overrun by force, like a stone wall.

noun Stonewalls

  1. Alternative letter-case form of stonewall (“alcoholic drink”). Try one of the inn's specialties from the old days — a Coow Woow (pronounced coo-woo), a 17th-century drink made with ginger brandy and rum on crushed ice; or a Stonewall, which is a century older — gin and applejack over ice cubes.

proper noun

  1. historical A series of riots in 1969 New York City, beginning with the patrons of the gay bar "The Stonewall Inn" resisting police arrest, which marked the beginning of the militant gay rights movement. Stonewall means fighting back.
  2. A nickname of Confederate general Thomas Jonathan Jackson.
  3. A formation in chess (a variation of the Queen's Pawn Game) in which white plays pawns to d4 and several other positions, requiring black to react energetically (see Stonewall Attack). the Stonewall attack, a Stonewall setup, a Stonewall formation
  4. A town in Manitoba, Canada.
  5. A former gold-mining town in California, in the Cuyamaca Mountains.
  6. A town in Louisiana.
  7. A town in Mississippi.
  8. A town in North Carolina.
  9. A town in Oklahoma.
  10. An unincorporated community in Texas.
  11. An unincorporated community in West Virginia.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: stall, avoid, stone-throwing, gay bashing, stoking, storm, publicity stunt, strike, storming, stoneshot, rioting, bloody sunday, stonk, striketober, riot, stone's shot

Translations

Every language

noun refusal to cooperate

Portuguêstergiversar

verb to refuse to answer or cooperate

Españolentorpecer, rehusarse a cooperar, andar con evasivas, andarse con evasivas, negarse a contestar
Françaisbétonner
Deutschabblocken, mauern

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MLA

"stonewall." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/stonewall. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

stonewall. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/stonewall

Chicago

"stonewall." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/stonewall.

BibTeX
@misc{stonewall_2026,
  title = {stonewall},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/stonewall},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}