wallpaper

[wawl-pey-per] /ˈwɔlˌpeɪ pər/
noun
1.
paper, usually with printed decorative patterns in color, for pasting on and covering the walls or ceilings of rooms, hallways, etc.
2.
any fabric, foil, vinyl material, etc., used as a wall or ceiling covering.
3.
Computers. a design or picture in the background of the primary display screen of a graphical user interface:
Personalize your tablet by changing the wallpaper.
verb (used with object)
4.
to put wallpaper on (a wall, ceiling, etc.) or to furnish (a room, house, etc.) with wallpaper.
Origin
1820-30; wall + paper
Examples from the web for wallpaper
  • We are still alive after thousands of wallpaper jobs.
  • He came on what was apparently a vacant space which had been simply covered over with wallpaper.
  • Diverse accents and vintage wallpaper draw the eye in the living room.
  • My mom once told me that hanging wallpaper is the ultimate test of a marriage.
  • When the dry amber began to crumble, the officials instead tried hiding the room behind thin wallpaper.
  • Part of the reason that art costs more than wallpaper is the expectation that it might appreciate in value.
  • Old houses carry their history in rotting beams, sinking floors and umpteen layers of wallpaper.
  • The floors and shelves are dark oak, and the walls are covered in hunter-green wallpaper.
  • In this case that includes being reduced to holding the wallpaper of the great rooms together with thumbtacks.
  • Acid fumes invaded all the rooms: the wallpaper changed color.
British Dictionary definitions for wallpaper

wallpaper

/ˈwɔːlˌpeɪpə/
noun
1.
paper usually printed or embossed with designs for pasting onto walls and ceilings
2.
  1. something pleasant but bland which serves as an unobtrusive background
  2. (as modifier): wallpaper music
3.
(computing) a graphics file that can be displayed in certain applications behind or around the main dialogue boxes, working display areas, etc, for decoration
verb
4.
to cover (a surface) with wallpaper
Word Origin and History for wallpaper
n.

1827, from wall (n.) + paper (n.).

wallpaper in Technology


1. A file containing a listing (e.g. assembly listing) or a transcript, especially a file containing a transcript of all or part of a login session. (The idea was that the paper for such listings was essentially good only for wallpaper, as evidenced at Stanford, where it was used to cover windows).
The term is now rare, especially since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g. PHOTO on TWENEX). However, the Unix world doesn't have an equivalent term, so perhaps wallpaper will take hold there. The term probably originated on ITS, where the commands to begin and end transcript files were ":WALBEG" and ":WALEND", with default file "WALL PAPER" (the space was a path delimiter).
2. The background pattern used on graphical workstations under the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface to MS-DOS.
(1994-12-22)