blind alley

English

Etymology

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.

Noun

blind alley (plural blind alleys)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blind,‎ alley. A street or passageway that leads nowhere.
2. (figurative) A course of inquiry that leads nowhere.
   • 2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 21 April 2019:

     [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.

   • 2023 October 4, Ben Jones, “'08e' sparks new life into trusty shunters”, in RAIL, number 993, page 47:

     "We looked into lots of blind alleys for re-engineering our fleet. […] ."

Synonyms

• cul-de-sac
• dead end

Translations

street that leads nowhere — see dead end

course of inquiry — see impasse