Forms: 4–6 aley, aleye, 5 aly, alaye, 6 ally, 6– alley. Pl. alleys, formerly often allies. [a. OFr. alee, mod.Fr. allée, 1. the act of walking, passage, 2. a walk or passage.]
I. A walk, a passage.
† 1. A passage in or into a house; a covered way. Obs.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Kings vii. 2. He bildide foure aleis [1382 aluris] bitwixe the pilers of cedre.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XII. 4978. Mony long chaumburs, Goand vp by degres þurgh mony gay alys.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 86 b. For ther was no more … but a litil aleye from her chambre to his. Ibid. (1480), Chron. Eng., VII. (1520), 115 b/2. An aleye that stretcheth out of the warde under the erth into the forsayd castell.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froissart, II. cxvi. [cxii.] 334. The aley vnder couert endured fro their garyson a seuen or eight leages.
b. fig.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 67. The natural Gates and Allies of the Body.
II. esp. A bordered walk or passage.
2. A walk in a garden, park, shrubbery, maze, or wood, generally bordered with trees, or bushes; an avenue; also the spaces between beds of flowers or plants, or between the rows of hops in a hop-garden.
1382. Wyclif, Song of Sol. xi. 1. I am the flour of the feeld, and the lilie of aleyes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 285. And in the Aleyes [v.r. aleyes, -eis, -ies] romeden vp and doun.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Aley yn gardyne. Peribolus.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, xx. 575. Wild [purslowe] groweth of his owne accorde in wayes and alies of gardens.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 48. Throughout all the allies of his hop garden.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. ii. 10. Walking in a thick pleached alley in my orchard.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 527. The allies that lie between the beds.
1625. Bacon, Ess. (Arb.), 563. These closer alleys must be ever finely gravelled.
1637. Milton, Comus, 311. Each lane, and every alley green Dingle or bushy dell of this wild wood.
1716–8. Lady M. Montague, Lett., I. x. 36. At the end of the fine alley in the garden.
1809. Brydone, Sicily, xxi. 217. The approach to Palermo is fine. The alleys are planted with fruit-trees.
1848. L. Hunt, Jar of Honey, ix. 125. A walk down an alley of roses.
1849. Ruskin, 7 Lamps, ii. § xv. 43. Pictured landscapes at the extremities of alleys and arcades.
1861. Delamer, Kitchen Gard., 41. Beds four feet in width, with a foot-wide alley between each bed.
1863. Longf., Wayside Inn, Theolog. T., 93. He walked all night the alleys of his park.
1867. Miss Braddon, Rup. Godwin, I. i. 4. Under the shelter of a long alley of hazel and filbert trees.
1878. R. Stevenson, Inland Voy. With alleys of trees along the embankment.
b. fig.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. 554. We are now striking into another alley, and starting a different question.
3. A passage between buildings; hence, a narrow street, a lane; usually only wide enough for foot-passengers. Blind Alley: one that is closed at the end, so as to be no thoroughfare; a cul de sac. The Alley, particularly applied to Change Alley, London, scene of the gambling in South Sea and other stocks. (In U.S. applied to what in London is called a Mews.)
c. 1510. Cocke Lorelles Bote, 6. Also in ave maria aly, and at westmenster, And some in shordyche.
1583. Stanyhurst, Aeneis, ii. (1880), 66. Through crosse blynd allye we iumble.
1615. Sandys, Trav., 12. The buildings meane, the streets no larger than allies.
1687. Lond. Gaz., mmccxcviii/4. In a paved Alley near St. Sepulchres Church in London.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 8, ¶ 3. The Lanes and Allies that are inhabited by Common Swearers.
c. 1713. H. Carey (title), Sally in our Alley.
1720. The Bubblers Medley (title), Stock Jobbing Cards, or the Humours of Change Alley.
1720. Swift, in Bk. of Days, I. 146. There is a gulf where thousands fell … A narrow sound though deep as hell, ‘Change Alley’ is the dreadful name.
1722. De Foe, Plague, 167. The mortality was great in the yard or alley.
1728. Newton, Chronol. Amend., v. 340. Buildings … with a walk or alley between them.
1775. Ash, Alley … the place in the city of London where the public funds are bought and sold.
1861. Stanley, East Ch., ii. (1869), 62. The dark corners of London alleys.
1863. R. Chambers, Bk. of Days, I. 146. Exchange Alley was the seat of the gambling fever.
1876. World, No. 107, 12. Some who write of Courts, are more familiar with alleys.
4. A long narrow enclosure for playing at bowls, skittles, etc.
a. 1400. Squyr of lowe Degre, 804. An hundreth knightes, truly tolde, Shall play with bowles in alayes colde.
1615. Country Contentm., in Strutt, Sports & Past. (1876), 363. Flat bowles being best for allies, your round byazed bowles for open grounds.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 5 June. Sir W. Pen and I went home with Sir R. Slingsby to bowles in his ally.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past. (1810), 237. The little room required for making these bowling alleys was no small cause of their multiplication.
1844. Ord. & Regul. Army, § 438. Skittle Alleys are repaired by the Royal Engineer Department.
b. fig.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 2. The aire will be a player, vnlesse you can keepe it out of the Alley perforce.
1612. Bacon, Ess., Cunning (Arb.), 434. Such Men are fitter for Practise, then for Counsell; And they are good but in their own Alley: Turne them to New Men, and they have lost their Ayme.
5. A passage between the rows of pews or seats in a church. Still used in the north. In the south corruptly replaced by AISLE.
[1464. in Test. Ebor., II. 268. In medio ambulatorii coram crucifixo.] Ibid. (1508), VII. 28. [To be buried] afore ye rode in ye ally.
1558. in Richmond Wills, 180. To be buried in the mydde allie before the quere dore.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1295. Temples, which in some places have faire open Isles and pleasant allies.
1686. Oldham, Satyrs, 193. At Church … you in the Alley stand, and sneak.
1697. Bp. of Lincoln, in Southey, Comm.-Pl. Bk., Ser. II. 68. So strait a place as an ally of the Church.
1776. Wesley, Wks., 1872, IV. 71. The church was crowded, pews, alleys, and galleries.
¶ As aisle was erroneously put for alley, so alley has been used for aisle (ala).
1731. Derby, in Phil. Trans., XLI. 229. The Leads and Timber of great Part of the North Alley of the Church was broke in.
6. In a printing-office, the space between two compositors’ stands, or between two printing-presses.
1871. Ringwalt, Encycl. Pr., 27.
1875. Southward, Dict. Pr., 4.
7. A passage or free space between two lines of any kind.
1756. Warton, Ess. Pope, II. § 8 (1782), 30. It is a description of an alley of fish-women.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxv. 329. We were in an alley of pounded ice-masses.
8. The AMBULACRUM in the shell of an echinoderm.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. vi. 208. Those parts (of the shell of sea urchins) void of spines called the alleys.
† 9. = ALURE: a gallery round the roof. Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks. (1869), I. 110. Aboue þe pynacle of þe temple þat sum men seyen weren þe aleis.
10. Comb. or Attrib. as alley maker, making, etc.
1552. Huloet, Aley maker, Topiarius. Aley makynge, Topiaria.
