alley

«alley» in Mova's school dictionary: a narrow lane or path between or behind buildings — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an alley, alleys; alleyway)

meaning for a pupil

1) An alley is a narrow lane or path between or behind buildings. tree →

2) A bowling alley is a building or lane where people play bowling. tree →

3) (informal) Something that is "up your alley" (also "right up your street") is the kind of thing you like. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories, alleys can be dark, quiet or a shortcut; in safety lessons children are told to avoid dark alleys alone and to use busy, well-lit routes. In everyday life bowling alleys are a fun place for parties. Phrases: «a back alley», «a dark alley», «bowling alley», «blind alley» (a dead end), «up my alley».

examples

• The cat ran down the alley behind the shops. tree →
• Don't take the dark alley home; use the main road. tree →
• We had my birthday party at the bowling alley. tree →
• The alley was too narrow for a car. tree →
• This puzzle book is right up your alley. tree →
• The thief escaped through a back alley. tree →
• The plan led us up a blind alley. tree →
• In going thus from place to place, he entered a dark alley at the bottom of which was a closed door. tree →

note

Countable noun; plural «alleys» (just add -s). Do not confuse with «ally» (a friend or partner in a fight, AL-eye) or «alloy» (a mix of metals). «Alleyway» means the same as alley.

In the corpora

• When older boys followed Sam and Freddie, they did not run into an empty alley; they walked calmly into the newsagent's.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «alley» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.