shield wall
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.23 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A defensive formation, used from antiquity through the early Middle Ages, in which soldiers stand shoulder to shoulder with their shields overlapping, creating a continuous barrier against enemy attack.
noun
A barrier.
noun
An impenetrable barrier.
Example Sentences
- "Still, in spite of the sensation of being caught between a ‘shield-wall’ of opaque references and a ‘word-hoard’ that is old and strange, such readers are also bound to feel a certain ‘shock of the new’."
- "Their spears protruded from the chinks in this formation that was known as the ‘shieldwall’ or ‘war hedge’."
Etymology
See Old English sċieldweall, with the same meaning.