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up against the wall

a. trapped, cornered; discommoded, discomfited; in a quandary.

Usage examples of "up against the wall".

My chair was backed up against the wall in the sheriff's office, and I was looking at the stars through the windows and feeling too lazy to go back to my magazine and wondering if I ought to knock off and hit the sack or keep on listening to Cameron curse real steady as he went over his columns of figures for the hundred twenty-seventh time.

Benito had been smart-mouthed and Marco had finally backed the boy up against the wall and threatened honest-to-God serious mayhem if Benito didn't shape up.

As Carter backed up against the wall, Snark's claws were almost within reach of his neck, and Snark was drooling.

Too many places, like Baskin - Robbins, have sits lined up against the wall.

The boy looked down, leaned back up against the wall, and folded his arms across his chest.

His lips trembled, and, rushing to the back of the box, he leaned up against the wall, hiding his face in his hands.

Capone dispatched gunmen, disguised as policemen, who rounded up seven members of the gang, stood them up against the wall of Moran's commercial garage, and brutally executed them with Tommy guns.

Sarin kicks me again and leaps backwards but I keep on going till she's up against the wall, and then I connect with a punch which drops her like a drunken Elf falling from a tree.

It was high tide and the water was washing up against the wall at the side of the path and flowing to and fro over logs and boulders.

He opened it, and, leading the priest into the room, pointed to his dead countess, who lay high up against the wall, her hands clasped, unmindful for evermore of the six feet of carved cupids and lilies that upheld her.

The heat from the fires of his face forced Perrin across the kitchen until his back came up against the wall.

It darted out of sight behind a narrow black case that was propped up against the wall.

The mitrailleuse will catch them enfilade, piled up against the wall with scaling ladders.

It was obscene even to think that, and he threw the thought aside as his men foamed up against the wall like the sea.