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Definition of alley noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

alley

noun
 
/ˈæli/
 
/ˈæli/
Idioms
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  1. (also alleyway
     
    /ˈæliweɪ/
     
    /ˈæliweɪ/
    )
    a narrow passage behind or between buildings
    • a narrow/dark alley
    • The car was hidden down a narrow alley in the downtown area.
    • He ran down one of the dark alleys at the back of the shops.
    see also back alley, blind alley, bowling alley
    Extra Examples
    • The alley leads to the restaurant kitchen.
    • They found the cat in an alley.
    • a bar down a little alley
    • a maze of narrow alleys
    • An alley ran along the side of the house.
    • She wandered back through the cobbled alleys.
    • It is a medieval city of courtyards and twisting alleys.
    • The book describes the conditions of the urban poor in the sordid alleys of Victorian cities.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • dark
    • darkened
    • deserted
    alley + verb
    • lead onto something
    • lead to something
    alley + noun
    • cat
    preposition
    • along an/​the alley
    • down an/​the alley
    • up an/​the alley
    See full entry
  2. (North American English) the area between the pair of straight lines on a tennis or badminton court that mark the extra area that is used when four people are playing compare tramlines (2)Topics Sports: ball and racket sportsc2
  3. see also back-alley
    Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French alee ‘walking or passage’, from aler ‘go’, from Latin ambulare ‘to walk’.
Idioms
(right) up your alley
  1. (North American English)
    (especially British English (right) up your street)
    (informal) very suitable for you because it is something that you know a lot about or are very interested in
    • A teaching job would be right up her alley.
See alley in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
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noun
 
 
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