mall Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a public area set aside as a pedestrian walk
    promenade.
  2. noun mercantile establishment consisting of a carefully landscaped complex of shops representing leading merchandisers; usually includes restaurants and a convenient parking area; a modern version of the traditional marketplace
    center; shopping centre; plaza; shopping mall; shopping center.
    • a good plaza should have a movie house
    • they spent their weekends at the local malls

WordNet

Mall noun
Etymology
OE. malle, F. mail, L. malleus. Cf. Malleus.
Definitions
  1. A large heavy wooden beetle; a mallet for driving anything with force; a maul. Addison.
  2. A heavy blow. Obs. Spenser.
  3. An old game played with malls or mallets and balls. See Pall-mall. Cotton.
  4. A place where the game of mall was played. Hence: A public walk; a level shaded walk.
    Part of the area was laid out in gravel walks, and planted with elms; and these convenient and frequented walks obtained the name of the City Mall. Southey.
Mall transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. OF. mailler. See Mall beetle, and cf. Malleate.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Malled ; present participle & verbal noun Malling
Definitions
  1. To beat with a mall; to beat with something heavy; to bruise; to maul.
Mall noun
Etymology
LL. mallum a public assembly; cf. OHG. mahal assembly, transaction; akin to AS. mæel, meel, assembly, mlan to speak, Goth. mapl market place.
Definitions
  1. Formerly, among Teutonic nations, a meeting of the notables of a state for the transaction of public business, such meeting being a modification of the ancient popular assembly. Hence: (a) A court of justice. (b) A place where justice is administered. (c) A place where public meetings are held.
    Councils, which had been as frequent as diets or malls, ceased. Milman.
    2. See MW10] (a) A public access area containing a promenade for pedestrians. (b) The paved or grassy strip between two roadways. (c) A shopping area with multiple shops and a concourse for predominantly or exclusively pedestrian use; inn cities the concourse is usually a city street which may be temporarily or permamently closed to motor vehicles; in suburban areas, a mall is often located on a convenient highway, may be large, contained in one building or multiple buildings connected by (usually covered) walkways.

Webster 1913