Wall Street orig. U.S.
(wɔːl striːt)
The name of a street in New York City where some of the most important American financial institutions are centred, used:
1. absol. Denoting the American financial world or money-market. Also transf.
| [1806 Balance (Hudson, N.Y.) V. 228/1 Walking thro' Wall street yesterday morning, I saw a large crowd.] 1841 Week in Wall St. p. ix, In the expressive language of Wall-street, he has himself been ‘flunked’. 1871 L. M. Alcott Little Men xiv. 244 The firm [was] broken up... The barn, which was the boys' Wall Street, knew him no more. 1872 B. Jerrold London xii. 104 The New York gossip of yesterday, is ours upon our breakfast table. We can almost hear the hum of Wall Street. 1905 G. B. Shaw Let. 3 Jan. (1972) II. 497 Finding Capel Court (our Wall St) against his conscience, he became a carpenter. 1949 Chicago Daily News 31 May 1/6 Wall Street traced liquidation to the many new uncertainties created by declining production. 1975 Times 25 Sept. 8/7 The banking and business quarter—known as Beirut's ‘Wall Street’. |
2. a. attrib., as Wall Street broker, Wall Street method, Wall Street price, etc.
| 1836 Jamestown (N.Y.) Jrnl. 16 Mar. 1/2 A company—Wall street brokers and speculators—are the applicants for the loan to the New York and Erie Railroad. 1861 in L. C. Baker Hist. U.S. Secret Service (1867) v. 100 Such..is the windy stuff which—uses to draw money out of the Wall Street kings. 1892 A. C. Gunter Miss Dividends 188 All the rest..[had] fallen victims to his imported Wall Street methods. 1935 G. Greene England made Me ii. 47 ‘Put through any long-distance calls.’ ‘The Wall Street prices?’ 1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet iii. ii. 240 He figured if we named him Wallstreet Panic it might make him get rich like the folks that run that Wallstreet panic. 1972 R. Perry Fall Guy iv. 78 His immaculate suit would have put many a Wall Street executive to shame. 1981 A. Lurie Lang. of Costume iv. 114 In the urban centers of the West..bankers..sometimes adopt an Eastern manner of speech and a Wall Street appearance. |
b. Special Comb. Wall Street crash, crisis, the collapse of the American stock-market which took place in October 1929.
| 1929 N.Y. Times 26 Oct. 2/8 Commenting on the Wall Street crash of yesterday, the German press unanimously agrees that Germany has no reason to mourn. 1933 R. G. Hawtrey Trade Depression iii. 31 The Federal Reserve Banks can hardly be blamed for their policy of credit restriction up to the moment of the Wall Street crisis. 1981 E. Longford Queen Mother ii. 38 The slump or depression of the 1930s began with the Wall Street crash of 1929 in America. |
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Add: Hence ˈWall Streetish a., of or characteristic of Wall Street or the people who work there.
| 1926 E. E. Cummings Let. 13 Sept. (1969) 112 The [Harvard] coop's missive sounds almost preposterously wallstreetish. 1988 Newsday 6 May iii. 13/1 It seems almost unimaginable that her Juliet would turn down someone as tall and suave and almost Wall Streetish as Paris. |