wall unit
1
2.8
- noun
- /wɔl ˈjunɪt/
:
mueble de pared
- She organized the living room by adding a stylish wall unit for extra storage and display space.
- a built-in wall unit
Examples
-
The family room had built-in wall units that displayed books, photos, and decorative items.
-
These were grouped in cases embedded in curvilinear wall units, color-coded to distinguish each area.
Academic text (1998) -
He walks over and rips the phone out of the wall unit.
Fiction book (1993) -
He saw fragments of his face in the mirrored metal of the wall unit.
Fiction book (1995) -
A mass of scattered clothes, magazines, and paperback books surrounded the wall unit, covering about half the carpet.
Fiction book (1996) -
I was nine years old and dumbfounded as Cousin Dave removed his laserdisc of On Her Majesty's Secret Service from the wall unit.
Blog text (22) -
Covering Corbett with the rifle, Eric handcuffs him to the sturdy metal bracket of a wall unit.
Fiction book (1993) -
"He heard the receiver being laid on top of the wall unit, then heard it fall, swinging on the cord and knocking against the wall, blam... blam.
Fiction book (1999) -
In a few moments, they were standing in front of a desk, although a more apt description would have labeled it a command center, with its wall of TV monitors, phones, and other electronic gadgetry neatly built into shining tables and impressive wall units.
Fiction book (1997) -
In the new apartment, the wall unit provided ample room for her collection of CDs and cherished art pieces.
Synonyms
168
1.3
A piece of furniture with shelves or drawers for storing things
16
1.1
A single item in a room like a chair or table
7
2.9
Furniture with flat boards for storing or showing things
Antonyms
How Large
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a large piece of furniture placed against one wall' is directly derivable from combining 'wall' (vertical surface) with 'unit' (a single component) — i.e. a unit intended for a wall. This noun-noun compounding pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
The name wall unit may come from the simple idea of a unit or piece of furniture built to stand against a room's wall, so several units together make a large wall of shelves or cabinets. So, wall unit now means a big piece of furniture made of sections for 'storage' or 'display'.