stonewall

English

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Pronunciation

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Noun

stonewall (plural stonewalls)

1. A refusal to cooperate.

Verb

stonewall (third-person singular simple present stonewalls, present participle stonewalling, simple past and past participle stonewalled)

1. (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.

Translations

to refuse to cooperate

• Spanish: entorpecer (es)

• Tagalog: dedma (tl)

Derived terms

• stonewaller

Adjective

stonewall (not comparable)

1. (UK, idiomatic) Certain, stone cold.
   • Martin Smith, Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2007:

     Fortune favoured the fortunate when Martin Atkinson ignored a stonewall penalty

   • Gordon Parks, Daily Record, 13 January 2011:

     Lennon also pointed to a booking for Niall McGinn for diving as a stonewall penalty to add to his grievances.

Usage notes

• Most often encountered in sports, in reference to refereeing decisions; apparently a corruption of "stone cold".