Meaning
To irritate or exasperate someone intensely. The subject is usually a persistent nuisance - a noise, a habit, a delay, a person - and the phrase is more colloquial and stronger than saying one is merely annoyed. Very informal and conversational; conveys exasperation well beyond mild annoyance. Regional use: General English.
Origin
A mid-20th-century colloquialism. The Phrase Finder attributes it to Britain in the 1950s, describing it as an extension of the earlier 'up the wall', meaning angry or frantic, and Merriam-Webster dates its first known use to 1952. No single documented origin exists: the image simply evokes someone so tormented by irritation that they scramble up the walls, in the same family as the older 'climb the walls'. American slang dictionaries record it from around 1950, and it became common in the 1960s.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- climbing the walls
- drive someone up a wall
- driving me up the wall
- go up the wall
- send someone up the wall
Usage Examples
- The constant dripping from the ceiling was driving her up the wall by the third day.
- His habit of humming during meetings drives his colleagues up the wall.
- I love my neighbours, but their wind chimes send me up the wall at two in the morning.