Go to the wall

To go to the wall is to fail, succumb or go bankrupt and has been well established in this sense since the mid-19th century. The origin may, however, be a lot older than that. Walls, logically, have long been associated with extreme limits and even death, as in turn one’s face to the wall, while ‘the weakest go the wall’ has been an English proverb since the 1500s. Some say that the origin derives from medieval churches where the bulk of the congregation would stand while the old, weak or infirm would lean against the walls. It is a lovely story but not proven. Alternatively, go the wall for someone means to support someone to the very limit and this sense of reaching extreme limits is evident in the expression backs to wall, which in turn derives from fighting and warfare and dates from the 1500s. Therefore, it seems likely that the origin does derive from fighting, duelling and warfare from times gone by, when people who were backed up against walls found themselves in dire straits.