prison wall
5
3.6
- noun
:
murallas de la prisión
- She pressed her hands against the cold stone of the prison wall and gazed out at the world beyond.
The problem is rightly and urgently become the object of organized resistance both inside and outside prison walls.
- The problem is rightly and urgently become the object of organized resistance both inside and outside prison walls.
Examples
-
There are three pigeons perched on the prison wall.
Fiction book (1992) -
Tepper gives the prison walls one last glance and climbs into his battered jeep as the gate opens briefly, but only to let in a new batch of prisoners.
Academic text (2007) -
You have no idea what is happening outside these prison walls.
-
Another 47 yards would take us beyond the prison walls.
-
They're outside the prison wall.
Fiction book (1991) -
The guards patrolled the perimeter of the prison wall to ensure no one tried to escape.
-
Rain poured down against the prison wall, creating a gloomy atmosphere for the inmates inside.
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and literally composed from 'prison' (an institution that houses inmates) + 'wall' (a vertical barrier), so the phrase denotes the wall that encloses a prison. This simple noun+noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic pattern and would be immediately clear to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Prison wall comes from the simple, literal picture of a strong wall built around a prison, usually high and watched by guards to stop people leaving. So, it means 'the boundary or enclosure of a prison'.