blind alley
- noun
- /blaɪnd ˈæli/
:
callejón sin salida
- After walking through the narrow streets, we found ourselves in a blind alley with no way out.
Examples
-
He realized he had taken a wrong turn when he ended up in a blind alley at the edge of the town.
-
The children played in the blind alley, oblivious to the fact that it was a dead end.
-
The limousine dropped them at a P214 dingy hostelry on a blind alley, L'Hotel Feydeau, and the actress and Lee went on to Montmartre.
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
28
2.7
A street or road that ends and does not go through
21
4.7
A short street closed at one end with no through traffic
4
2.1
A street that ends at one side so cars cannot drive through
1
8.1
A street that ends and has no other exit
Antonyms
- US
2
4.1
A wide road that lets cars and trucks travel fast without stoplights or intersections
How Accessible
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal reading 'an alley that is 'blind' (i.e. has no way through)' is reasonably inferable from 'blind' + 'alley', so learners who know the constituents can often guess the concrete dead-end sense. However, the extension to a figurative 'course of action that leads nowhere' is a metaphorical shift and not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Blind alley is a name for a narrow street that is closed at one end. The alley has no way through and the blind end is blocked, so it is literally a 'dead end'.