What does alley mean?

Definitions for alley
ˈæl ial·ley

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word alley.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. alley, alleyway, back streetnoun

    a narrow street with walls on both sides

  2. bowling alley, alley, skittle alleynoun

    a lane down which a bowling ball is rolled toward pins

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Alleynoun

    Etymology: allée, Fr.

    And all within were walks and alleys wide,
    With footing worn, and leading inward far. Fairy Queen.

    It is common from experience, that where alleys are close gravelled, the earth putteth forth the first year knotgrass, and after spiregrass. Francis Bacon, Natural History, №. 565.

    Yonder alleys green,
    Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown. Parad. Lost.

    Come, my fair love, our morning’s task we lose;
    Some labour ev’n the easiest life would choose:
    Ours is not great: the dangling bows to crop,
    Whose too luxuriant growth our alleys stop. Dryden.

    The thriving plants, ignoble broomsticks made,
    Now sweep those alleys they were born to shade. Alexander Pope.

    A back friend, a shoulder clapper, one that commands
    The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands. William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errours.

Wikipedia

  1. Alley

    An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane), or a path, walk, or avenue (French allée) in a park or garden.A covered alley or passageway, often with shops, may be called an arcade. The origin of the word alley is late Middle English, from Old French: alee "walking or passage", from aller "to go", from Latin: ambulare "to walk".

ChatGPT

  1. alley

    An alley is a narrow street or passageway, often located between or behind buildings, typically in a city. It is often used for deliveries, garbage collection, or access to outbuildings, usually not intended for general traffic flow. In some regions, it can also refer to a small, grassy field or a pedestrian walkway within a park or garden.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Alleynoun

    a narrow passage; especially a walk or passage in a garden or park, bordered by rows of trees or bushes; a bordered way

  2. Alleynoun

    a narrow passage or way in a city, as distinct from a public street

  3. Alleynoun

    a passageway between rows of pews in a church

  4. Alleynoun

    any passage having the entrance represented as wider than the exit, so as to give the appearance of length

  5. Alleynoun

    the space between two rows of compositors' stands in a printing office

  6. Alleynoun

    a choice taw or marble

  7. Etymology: [OE. aley, alley, OF. ale, F. alle, a going, passage, fr. OE. aler, F. aller, to go; of uncertain origin: cf. Prov. anar, It. andare, Sp. andar.]

Wikidata

  1. Alley

    An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane found in urban areas, often for pedestrians only, which usually runs between or behind buildings. In older cities and towns in Europe, alleys are often what is left of a medieval street network, or a right of way or ancient footpath in an urban setting. In older urban development, alleys were built to allow for deliveries such as coal to the rear of houses. Alleys may be paved, or simply dirt tracks. A blind alley has no outlet at one end and is thus a cul-de-sac. Many modern urban developments do not incorporate alleys, but some may provide a service road to allow for waste collection, or rear access for fire engines and parking. Andrés Duany, American architect and urban planner, has long espoused the use of alleys as leading to a better integration of automobile and foot traffic in a neighborhood.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Alley

    al′li, n. a walk in a garden or shrubbery: a passage in a city narrower than a street: a long narrow enclosure for playing at bowls or skittles:—pl. All′eys. [O. Fr. alee (Fr. allée), a passage, from aller, to go, O. Fr. aner, most prob. from L. adnāre, to go to by water, or aditāre, adīre.]

  2. Alley

    Ally, al′li, n. a name given by boys to a choice taw or large marble. [Contraction of alabaster, of which it was originally made.]

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. ALLEY

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Alley is ranked #2529 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Alley surname appeared 14,323 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 5 would have the surname Alley.

    92.3% or 13,220 total occurrences were White.
    2.6% or 377 total occurrences were Black.
    1.9% or 278 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.8% or 258 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    0.6% or 96 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
    0.6% or 95 total occurrences were Asian.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of alley in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of alley in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of alley in a Sentence

  1. Gillian Anderson:

    So I am happy they are going to get a chance to see this. Although they watched ‘Aquarius’ but this is up their alley.

  2. Premier Rachel Notley:

    Ignoring climate change is a blind alley for both the energy business, and for the province of Alberta.

  3. Terrisa Bukovinac:

    Big Abortion has ensured that abortion remains unregulated, making in-clinic abortions indistinguishable from so-called ‘back alley’ abortions, abortion-vulnerable communities need economic and racial justice to address the root cause of abortion and the abysmal maternal mortality rate, especially for Black women, not the option to terminate the lives of our offspring!

  4. Mitch McConnell:

    That's why I describe it like a knife fight in an alley, everybody's slugging it out.

  5. Michael Pfleger:

    What happened to Tyshawn Lee took us to a new low, this wasn't a drive-by. This was not a spray of bullets. A baby was executed. A baby was assassinated right behind us in this alley.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

alley#10000#10719#100000

Translations for alley

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"alley." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/alley>.

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