▪ I. alley
(ˈælɪ)
Forms: 4–6 aley, aleye, 5 aly, alaye, 6 ally, 6– alley. pl. alleys, formerly often allies.
[a. OFr. alee, mod.Fr. allée, 1. the act of walking, passage, 2. a walk or passage.]
I. A walk, a passage.
† 1. a. A passage in or into a house; a covered way. Obs.
| 1388 Wyclif 1 Kings vii. 2 He bildide foure aleis [1382 aluris] bitwixe the pilers of cedre. c 1400 Destr. Troy xii. 4978 Mony long chaumburs, Goand vp by degres þurgh mony gay alys. 1475 Caxton Jason 86 b, For ther was no more..but a litil aleye from her chambre to his. 1480 ― Chron. Eng. vii. (1520) 115 b/2 An aleye that stretcheth out of the warde under the erth into the forsayd castell. 1525 Ld. Berners Froissart II. cxvi. [cxii.] 334 The aley vnder couert endured fro their garyson a seuen or eight leages. |
b. fig.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. v. 67 The natural Gates and Allies of the Body. |
II. esp. A bordered walk or passage.
2. a. A walk in a garden, park, shrubbery, maze, or wood, generally bordered with trees, or bushes; an avenue; also the spaces between beds of flowers or plants, or between the rows of hops in a hop-garden.
| 1382 Wyclif Song of Sol. xi. 1, I am the flour of the feeld, and the lilie of aleyes. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 285 And in the Aleyes [v.r. aleyes, -eis, -ies] romeden vp and doun. 1440 Promp. Parv., Aley yn gardyne. Peribolus. 1578 Lyte Dodoens xx. 575 Wild [purslowe] groweth of his owne accorde in wayes and alies of gardens. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. i. 48 Throughout all the allies of his hop garden. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado i. ii. 10 Walking in a thick pleached alley in my orchard. 1601 Holland Pliny (1634) I. 527 The allies that lie between the beds. 1625 Bacon Ess. (Arb.) 563 These closer alleys must be ever finely gravelled. 1637 Milton Comus 311 Each lane, and every alley green Dingle or bushy dell of this wild wood. 1716–8 Lady M. Montague Lett. I. x. 36 At the end of the fine alley in the garden. 1809 Brydone Sicily xxi. 217 The approach to Palermo is fine. The alleys are planted with fruit-trees. 1848 L. Hunt Jar of Honey ix. 125 A walk down an alley of roses. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps ii. §xv. 43 Pictured landscapes at the extremities of alleys and arcades. 1861 Delamer Kitchen Gard. 41 Beds four feet in width, with a foot-wide alley between each bed. 1863 Longfellow Wayside Inn, Theolog. T. 93 He walked all night the alleys of his park. 1867 M. E. Braddon R. Godwin I. i. 4 Under the shelter of a long alley of hazel and filbert trees. 1878 R. Stevenson Inland Voy., With alleys of trees along the embankment. |
b. fig.
| 1765 Tucker Lt. Nat. I. 554 We are now striking into another alley, and starting a different question. |
3. a. A passage between buildings; hence, a narrow street, a lane; usually only wide enough for foot-passengers. blind alley: one that is closed at the end, so as to be no thoroughfare; a cul de sac. the Alley, particularly applied to Change Alley, London, scene of the gambling in South Sea and other stocks. (In U.S. applied to what in London is called a Mews.)
| c 1510 Cocke Lorelles Bote 6 Also in ave maria aly, and at westmenster, And some in shordyche. 1583 Stanyhurst Aeneis ii. (1880) 66 Through crosse blynd allye we iumble. 1615 Sandys Trav. 12 The buildings meane, the streets no larger than allies. 1687 Lond. Gaz. mmccxcviii/4 In a paved Alley near St. Sepulchres Church in London. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 8 ¶3 The Lanes and Allies that are inhabited by Common Swearers. c 1713 H. Carey (title) Sally in our Alley. 1720 The Bubblers Medley (title) Stock Jobbing Cards, or the Humours of Change Alley. 1720 Swift in Bk. of Days I. 146 There is a gulf where thousands fell..A narrow sound though deep as hell, ‘Change Alley’ is the dreadful name. 1722 De Foe Plague 167 The mortality was great in the yard or alley. 1728 Newton Chronol. Amend. v. 340 Buildings..with a walk or alley between them. 1775 Ash, Alley..the place in the city of London where the public funds are bought and sold. 1861 Stanley East Ch. ii. (1869) 62 The dark corners of London alleys. 1863 R. Chambers Bk. of Days I. 146 Exchange Alley was the seat of the gambling fever. 1876 World No. 107, 12 Some who write of Courts, are more familiar with alleys. |
b. A back-lane running parallel with a main street. U.S.
| 1729 in Baltimore Town Rec. (1905) 10 The commissioners..shall cause the same Sixty Acres to be..divided into convenient Streets, Lanes, and Allies, as near as may be into Sixty equal lots. 1747 Ibid. 22 To Survey the Same and lay it out into Lotts with convenient Streets and Alleys. 1817 S. R. Brown Western Gaz. 90 There are three streets,..besides lanes and alleys. Ibid. 101 Each block of lots has the advantage of two 16 feet alleys. 1835 J. Martin Gazetteer Virginia 139 Fire plugs are connected with the distributing pipes at every intersection of the alleys with 2nd and 3rd streets. 1890 J. A. Riis How other Half Lives (1891) 21 A notorious Fourth Ward alley. |
c. to be up a person's alley: to be up a person's street (see street n.). slang.
| 1931 M. E. Gilman Sob Sister v. 65 It's about time a good murder broke, and this one is right up your alley. 1936 D. Carnegie How to win Friends (1938) iv. viii. 247 Bridge will be in a cinch for you. It is right up your alley. 1941 Auden New Year Let. ii. p. 37 All vague idealistic art That coddles the uneasy heart, Is up his alley. 1954 R. P. Bissell High Water (1955) iii. 32 Right up your alley with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse and all them other uplifting characters you are always studying up on. 1965 New Statesman 9 Apr. 583/2 Its slogans and chirpy recommendations are right up her spiritual alley. |
4. a. A long narrow enclosure for playing at bowls, skittles, etc.
| a 1400 Squyr of lowe Degre 804 An hundreth knightes, truly tolde, Shall play with bowles in alayes colde. 1615 Country Contentm. in Strutt Sports & Past. (1876) 363 Flat bowles being best for allies, your round byazed bowles for open grounds. 1661 Pepys Diary 5 June, Sir W. Pen and I went home with Sir R. Slingsby to bowles in his ally. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. (1810) 237 The little room required for making these bowling alleys was no small cause of their multiplication. 1844 Ord. & Regul. Army §438 Skittle Alleys are repaired by the Royal Engineer Department. |
b. fig.
| 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 2 The aire will be a player, vnlesse you can keepe it out of the Alley perforce. 1612 Bacon Ess., Cunning (Arb.) 434 Such Men are fitter for Practise, then for Counsell; And they are good but in their own Alley: Turne them to New Men, and they have lost their Ayme. |
5. A passage between the rows of pews or seats in a church. Still used in the north. In the south corruptly replaced by aisle.
| [1464 in Test. Ebor. II. 268 In medio ambulatorii coram crucifixo.] 1508 Ibid. VII. 28 [To be buried] afore y⊇ rode in y⊇ ally. 1558 in Richmond Wills 180 To be buried in the mydde allie before the quere dore. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1295 Temples, which in some places have faire open Isles and pleasant allies. 1686 Oldham Satyrs 193 At Church..you in the Alley stand, and sneak. 1697 Bp. of Lincoln in Southey Comm.-Pl. Bk. Ser. ii. 68 So strait a place as an ally of the Church. 1776 Wesley Wks. 1872 IV. 71 The church was crowded, pews, alleys, and galleries. |
¶ As aisle was erroneously put for alley, so alley has been used for aisle (ala).
| 1731 Derby in Phil. Trans. XLI. 229 The Leads and Timber of great Part of the North Alley of the Church was broke in. |
6. In a printing-office, the space between two compositors' stands, or between two printing-presses.
| 1871 Ringwalt Encycl. Pr. 27. 1875 Southward Dict. Pr. 4. |
7. A passage or free space between two lines of any kind.
| 1756 Warton Ess. Pope II. §8. (1782) 30 It is a description of an alley of fish-women. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxv. 329 We were in an alley of pounded ice-masses. |
8. The ambulacrum in the shell of an echinoderm.
| 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. vi. 208 Those parts (of the shell of sea urchins) void of spines called the alleys. |
† 9. = alure: a gallery round the roof. Obs.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. (1869) I. 110 Aboue þe pynacle of þe temple þat sum men seyen weren þe aleis. |
10. Comb. or attrib. as alley maker, alley making, etc. alley cat (chiefly U.S.), a cat that frequents alleys, a stray cat, also (U.S. slang) transf. (see esp. quot. 1942).
| 1552 Huloet, Aley maker, Topiarius. Aley makynge, Topiaria. 1904 Atlantic Monthly Mar. 369/1 If you were just an alley-cat you wouldn't even get the chloroform. 1914 E. Pound in Blast i. 50 For her laughter frightens even the street hawker And the alley cat dies of a migraine. 1916 Don Marquis in Evening Sun (N.Y.) 1 Sept. 10/4 Ours is the zest of the alley cat. 1926 S. Lewis Mantrap iv. 44 Thinking up a way of insulting that mangy alley cat! 1941 Time 16 June 85/1 [list of words not to be used in film scripts] Alley cat (applied to a woman). 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §418. 2 Ragamuffin..alley cat. Ibid. §439. 2 Slut, alley cat. Ibid. §507. 2 Prostitute, alley cat. 1946 M. Dickens Happy Prisoner viii. 149 They're as quarrelsome as a couple of alley cats. |
▸ Lawn Tennis (chiefly N. Amer.). The strip between the singles and doubles sidelines on each side of the court. Cf. tram-line n. 2.
| 1904 J. P. Paret et al. Lawn Tennis 334 Alley, a slang expression defining the strip of court lying between the sidelines for singles and doubles. 1932 W. Faulkner Sartoris III. ii. 187 [I']d kept letting 'em get my alley. 1986 New Yorker 13 Oct. 124/1 She lost the point when she hit a loose forehand volley into the alley. 2000 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 6 Feb. 7 At deuce in the final game, Ullyett fired a backhand service return winner down the alley. |
▪ II. alley
var. ally, a kind of marble.