one-way street
7
1.6
- noun
- /ˈwʌnˌweɪ strit/
:
calle de sentido único
- The sign clearly indicated that it was a one-way street, so I turned around to avoid going in the wrong direction.
- traffic on a one-way street
- a busy one-way street
- direction on a one-way street
Examples
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With all the one-way streets in the area, it took more than a few minutes to get back to it, but we were still on time.
Blog text (11) -
You're going down a one-way street.
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Normally, you would not be going 65 down the wrong way of a one way street.
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Think nothing of going down a one-way street the wrong way.
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Half of these are one-way streets.
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This is a one-way street!
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Hey, this is a one-way street!
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This is a one-way street.
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I had turned the wrong way down a one-way street.
Blog text (23) -
It's a one-way street.
Antonyms
How Directional
7
1.6
5
2.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
one-way + street
The phrase combines 'one-way' (single direction) with 'street' (a path/route), so the metaphor that a relationship or situation only goes in one direction is directly inferable from the parts. This spatial-to-social mapping is common and follows regular compositional patterns cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings would typically understand the intended sense.
Etymology
One-way street comes from roads where signs or arrows show one-way on a street, so cars must go in a single direction and cannot go back. That's why it means 'a street where vehicles can travel in only one direction'.