run into a brick wall

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Encounter strong and unyielding opposition

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Gặp phải sự phản đối mạnh mẽ và không thể lay chuyển

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: physically colliding with a wall
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The new policy ran into a brick wall of resistance from the employees

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “run into a brick wall” mean?

Encounter strong and unyielding opposition Literally: physically colliding with a wall

Is “run into a brick wall” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.