From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe/come up against a (brick) wallbe/come up against a (brick) wallto reach a point where you cannot make progress, especially because something or someone is stopping you We seem to have come up against a brick wall in this investigation. → wall
Examples from the Corpus
be/come up against a (brick) wall• She swam in what she hoped was the direction of the stairs, only to come up against a wall. 