blind alley
† a. An out-of-the-way or secret alley. Obs. b. An alley closed at one end (see blind a. 11); a cul-de-sac; also fig., a course of action that fails to effect its purpose or from which there is no resultant benefit.
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 66 Through crosse blynd allye we iumble. 1662 Dryden Wild Gall. ii. i. (1725) 113 He must meet me in a blind Alley. 1681 ― Spanish Fryar i. 7 I'll e'en go lose my self in some blind Alley; and try if any courteous Damsel will think me worth the finding. 1724 Swift Irish Manuf. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 7 A hedge-press in some blind-alley about Little-Britain. 1854 B. St. John Purple Tints Paris II. 2 When..he..is compelled to become one of the blind-alleys of the species. 1882 P. H. Fitzgerald Recreat. Literary Man I. ii. 12 A familiarity with all the blind alleys..and passages of letters. 1898 E. Grey in Westm. Gaz. 6 June 2/3 Many of Lord Salisbury's concessions were blind alleys which led to nowhere. 1925 W. Deeping Sorrell & Son iii. §2 No blind alleys, or office stools. |
c. attrib. and fig., applied to something that ‘leads nowhere’, esp. employment that offers no opportunities for promotion or advancement.
| 1902 Westm. Gaz. 10 June 2/1 The second act, with its long ‘blind alley’ episode of Paolo's wife, lets down the piece severely. 1909 Ibid. 27 Oct. 2/1 ‘Blind alley’ employments. 1910 Ibid. 6 Jan. 3/3 The number of lads between the age of fifteen and twenty who are engaged in what have come to be known as ‘blind-alley occupations’. 1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier v. 88 The youth who leaves school at fourteen and gets a blind-alley job is out of work at twenty. 1957 J. S. Huxley Relig. without Revel. (new ed.) ix. 215 Through this radiating fan of restricted improvements and blind-alley specialisations there runs a trend towards major advance. |