pall mall

UK/ˌpælˈmæl/UK/ˈpæl ˌmæl/

noun

A 17th-century game in which a ball was driven along an alley and through a hoop using a mallet.

Meanings

pall mall1

nounpall mall (uncountable)

alternative pall-mall · alternative palle maille · alternative paille maille · alternative pale maille

  1. historicaluncountableA 17th-century game in which a ball was driven along an alley and through a hoop using a mallet.

Pall Mall2

proper noun

alternative obsolete Pall-Mall · alternative obsolete Pall-mall · alternative obsolete Pall mall

  1. A fashionable street in Westminster, leading from Trafalgar Square, via the Haymarket, to St James; it is the home of many select gentlemen's clubs.

    Costigan informed Milly, that when she was gone, Major Pendennis told him in his double-faced Pall Mall polite manner, that young Arthur had no fortune at all,

    1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In Which A Shooting Match Is Proposed”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 110
  2. An unincorporated community in Fentress County, Tennessee, United States, named after Pall Mall in London.
  3. A thoroughfare in Bendigo, Victoria.
nounPall Mall (plural Pall Malls)

plural Pall Malls · alternative obsolete Pall-Mall · alternative obsolete Pall-mall · alternative obsolete Pall mall

  1. A cigarette of the British Pall Mall brand.

    “You did smoke, though.” / “Yes.” / “Pall Malls?” / Thad had been raising his can of soda. It stopped six inches shy of his mouth. “How did you know that?” […] “But not that I smoked Pall Mall cigarettes for fifteen years,” Thad said.

    1989, Stephen King, The Dark Half, New York, NY: Viking Penguin, →ISBN, page 100

Origin

pall mall · noun

  1. Italianpalla“ball”
  2. Italianpallamaglio“ball-hammer”
  3. Middle Frenchpallemaille
  4. Englishpall mall

From Middle French pallemaille, pale-maille, from Italian pallamaglio (“ball-hammer”), from Italian palla (“ball”) and maglio (“hammer”).

Full word history & related roots →

Pall Mall · proper noun, noun

From pall mall, the name of a game once played there.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with pall mall

All rhymes →

Sounds the same

pell-mell (US)
Cite this entry
APA

pall mall. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pall%20mall

MLA

“pall mall.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pall%20mall. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pall mall,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pall%20mall.

Source: pall mall on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.