LOAD-BEARING WALL For use in domestic architecture, Tuesday-class structures. A wall that carries the weight of floors above it down through the foundation to the earth. Not to be confused with: partition walls, which divide rooms but support nothing. In vernacular usage, any conversation held before 8 a.m. that determines the shape of everything after. Also: the phone call you haven't made. Also: the painter whose brush finishes what the architect only drew. Note: removal requires temporary shoring or the entire day collapses into its own basement. See also: flying buttress, keystone, the 16-degree night that holds a building up by pressing against it.