mall

noun

ˈmȯl 

 especially British and for sense 1  ˈmal

1

: an alley used for pall-mall

2

[The Mall, promenade in London, originally a pall-mall alley]

a

: a usually public area often set with shade trees and designed as a promenade or as a pedestrian walk

b

: a usually paved or grassy strip between two roadways

3

a

: an urban shopping area featuring a variety of shops surrounding a usually open-air concourse reserved for pedestrian traffic

b

: a usually large suburban building or group of buildings containing various shops with associated passageways

Synonyms

• boardwalk
• promenade
• walk

Examples of mall in a Sentence

They spent the afternoon shopping at the mall.

the pedestrian traffic through the grassy mall is heaviest during the summer lunch hours

Recent Examples on the Web

This memoir stretches across a quarter century to chart the investigation into the author’s mother’s murder, which occurred in 1986, after she was abducted from a mall parking lot in Oklahoma City. —The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024

The man who fatally stabbed six people in an Australian mall on April 13 has now been identified. —Brenton Blanchet, Peoplemag, 14 Apr. 2024

The police on Sunday were combing through a crime scene spanning several floors of the Westfield Bondi Junction mall, which remained cordoned off. —Yan Zhuang, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2024

That includes not just large malls but downtown shopping centers and smaller hubs like strip malls. —Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 13 Apr. 2024

Our kids wore the sunglasses to the playground, mall, and other places and tossed them around the car (even the floor) on the way to each destination. —Staff Author, Parents, 13 Apr. 2024

The mall will also provide each guest with a packet of flower seeds to plant at home, while supplies last. —Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Apr. 2024

In January 2022, a fight that spilled from a restaurant and involved bottle-throwing and hair-pulling ended with a man firing a gun inside a mall parking garage. —David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 10 Apr. 2024

In Vermont, downtown Burlington had a Mardi Gras vibe yesterday,as people packed the pedestrian mall. —Maura Barrett, NBC News, 8 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

short for obsolete pall-mall mallet used in pall-mall

First Known Use

circa 1660, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing mall

• pall-mall
• shopping mall
• strip mall

Kids Definition

mall

noun

ˈmȯl 

1

: a shaded walk : promenade

2

: a usually paved or grassy strip between two roadways

3

a

: a group of stores and often restaurants arranged about an often covered way for pedestrians

b

: a usually large suburban building or group of buildings containing shops and often restaurants with connecting passageways

Etymology

a shortened form of pall-mall "a game similar to croquet formerly played in England," literally "ball-mallet"

Word Origin

In Italy in the 1500s a popular alley game similar to croquet was known as pallamaglio, from palla "ball," and maglio "mallet." The game (and word) was adopted by the French as pallemalle and in the 1600s by the English as pall-mall. The alley on which the game was played came to be known as a mall. One of the best known of these alleys, covered with sand and crushed shells, was located in London's St. James Park and was known as "The Mall." After the game lost favor, the Mall at St. James, as it continued to be called, was turned into a fashionable walkway with trees and flowers. Similar open-air places came to be called malls also. In the 20th century the word was applied to other public spaces, including the shopping complexes we now know as malls.