dry-stone wall
1
4.9
- noun
:
muro de piedra seca
- Over 150 sites of dry stone wall construction were made without mortar, encompassing huge granite boulders into the construction design.
Examples
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As part of his origin story of architecture, he traces the invention of building materials, which progress from rough wood to dry stone walls, and then to stone set in mortar.
Academic text (2015) -
In the countryside, many old dry-stone walls can still be seen, carefully constructed without any mortar.
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My latest inspiration was found from these dry stone walls.
Blog text (33) -
So watch for the influence of dry stone walls in my future free motion quilting projects.
Blog text (33) -
The ancient dry-stone walls, many of which have been laid there.
Blog text (25) -
They moved two stones from the top of the dry stone wall marking the boundary between the two properties and used them for goal posts.
Fiction book (1994) -
Born in Cheshire, England, Goldsworthy grew up in Yorkshire, where he worked on a farm building dry stone walls, stacking bales, and plowing fields.
Blog text (5) -
Added to this, the patrols were not allowed to use gateways or tracks because of the threat of IEDs, and this meant that much time was spent clambering over dry stone walls and forcing a way through the ubiquitous and painful blackthorn hedges.
Academic text (2011) -
The farmer repaired the dry-stone wall that separated his field from the neighbor's property.
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Tourists admire the beauty of the dry-stone wall that winds along the hiking trail through the hills.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A vertical structure that divides or surrounds an area, like part of a building
20
2.7
A low fence made by stacking rough stones to mark boundaries or keep animals out
A low stone wall made by fitting stones together without cement
Surface Forms
Morphology
dry-stone + wall
The overall idea 'a wall made of stones' is directly derivable from combining 'stone' and 'wall', and 'dry' signals a modification of the stones, so a learner will likely infer a wall composed of stones. However, 'dry' here has a specialized constructional meaning ('built without mortar') rather than the basic B1 sense 'not wet', so the precise technical sense may not be fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Dry-stone wall comes from a simple building method: builders stacked stone without using wet mortar, so the wall was dry with no wet material between the stones. That's why the term means 'a wall built from stones carefully fitted together without the use of mortar'.