pall : Idioms & Phrases

• noun a fashionable street in London noted for its many private clubs
  

WordNet

• noun a 17th century game; a wooden ball was driven along an alley with a mallet
  

WordNet

Pall`-mall" noun

Etymology

OF. palemail, It. pallamagio; palla a ball (of German origin, akin to E. ball) + magio hammer, fr. L. malleus. See lst Ball, and Mall a beetle.

Definitions

1. A game formerly common in England, in which a wooden ball was driven with a mallet through an elevated hoop or ring of iron. The name was also given to the mallet used, to the place where the game was played, and to the street, in London, still called Pall Mall. Written also pail-mail and pell-mell. Sir K. Digby. Evelyn.

Webster 1913