Word.ws English Dictionary

blind alley

blind alley noun: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blind, alley. A street or passageway that leads nowhere.

Noun

blind alley (plural blind alleys)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blind, alley. A street or passageway that leads nowhere.
    Synonyms:
    cul-de-sac, dead end
  2. (figuratively) A course of inquiry that leads nowhere.
    • [Raheem] Sterling was grateful that a glaring miss from [Jesse] Lingard's pass was rescued by a linesman's flag against the Manchester United midfielder, but he almost tried too hard as the game progressed and was running up blind alleys before he was replaced by Marcus Rashford after 68 minutes.2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 21 Apr 2019
    • "We looked into lots of blind alleys for re-engineering our fleet. […]."2023 October 4, Ben Jones, “'08e' sparks new life into trusty shunters”, in RAIL, number 993, page 47

blind alley meaning in Tamil and Urdu

blind alley in Tamil

முட்டுச் சந்து, முட்டுச்சந்து

blind alley in Urdu

اندھی گلی

Synonyms of blind alley

Forms of blind alley

pluralblind alleys

Origin of blind alley

The notion of ‘blindness’ comes from the lack of a through passage (the ‘eye’). Attested since 1583, and used figuratively since the mid-19th century.

Questions about blind alley

What does blind alley mean?
Blind alley means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blind, alley. A street or passageway that leads nowhere.
What is blind alley in Tamil?
Blind alley in Tamil is முட்டுச் சந்து, முட்டுச்சந்து. See Blind alley meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is blind alley?
Blind alley is a noun.
What is the plural of blind alley?
The plural of blind alley is blind alleys.

Words near blind alley in the dictionary

  1. Blincoe
  2. Blincoes
  3. blind
  4. blind abscess
  5. blind abscesses
  6. blind alley
  7. blind alleys
  8. blind as a bat
  9. blind as a beetle
  10. blind as a mole
  11. blind as an owl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blind alley (page history and authors); blind alley (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blind alley (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-blind alley.wav.

Cite this entry: “blind alley.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blind_alley. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.