| 释义 |
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.
1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 66 Through crosse blynd allye we iumble. 1662Dryden 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. 1724Swift Irish Manuf. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 7 A hedge-press in some blind-alley about Little-Britain. 1854B. St. John Purple Tints Paris II. 2 When..he..is compelled to become one of the blind-alleys of the species. 1882P. H. Fitzgerald Recreat. Literary Man I. ii. 12 A familiarity with all the blind alleys..and passages of letters. 1898E. Grey in Westm. Gaz. 6 June 2/3 Many of Lord Salisbury's concessions were blind alleys which led to nowhere. 1925W. 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.
1902Westm. Gaz. 10 June 2/1 The second act, with its long ‘blind alley’ episode of Paolo's wife, lets down the piece severely. 1909Ibid. 27 Oct. 2/1 ‘Blind alley’ employments. 1910Ibid. 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. 1957J. 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. |