blind alley

a blind alley

A path or course of action that leads nowhere; a dead end. After spending years trying to prove his hypothesis but failing to get the results he had hoped for, the physicist feared that he had wasted too much time heading down a blind alley.
See also: alley, blind
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

blind alley

A dead end; a position without hope of progress or success. For example, That line of questioning led the attorney up yet another blind alley. This term alludes to a street or alley that has no outlet at one end. [Mid-1800s]
See also: alley, blind
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

blind alley, (up) a

A dead end, either literally (a street or passage with only one entrance) or figuratively (a situation without hope of progress). The term dates from the sixteenth century.
See also: blind
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a blind alley
  • blind alley, (up) a
  • go down a blind alley
  • dead wrong
  • cut (one's) losses
  • cut losses
  • cut one’s losses
  • cut one's losses
  • cut your losses
  • on shaky ground
References in periodicals archive
Between August 13 and 28 Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri both walked into their respective blind alleys a narrow path between two thick concrete walls with no exit.
Blind Alleys
He argues that the purification of sociology proposed by behavioral sociology is a blind alley that can only be exited by allowing impurity, and that the behavioral economics movement has offered mainstream law and economics an opportunity to reinvigorate by embracing impurity.
Law and Behavioral Sciences: Why We Need Less Purity Rather Than More
Addressing a press conference here Tuesday, he said PTI chief was pushing his party to a blind alley.
PTI,PAT playing in hands of hidden forces: Hashmi
but our Government has continued up this blind alley by screwing its own people to the point of ruining them and the entire economy.
We can't get mugged by elite again
In the song Boniadi raps, "This ain't no road to freedom / It's a blind alley, like Kirstie Alley / Travolta, and Cruise, but we ain't no fools," the Huffington Post reported.
Tom Cruise's 'auditioned ex' raps anti-Scientology song
According to them, it will be very hard to come out from the blind alley that the country is in, but it will be most complicated for BDI.
What after the Chicago summit?
Rejecting as "sheer lies" South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit' claim that the southerners pulled out from the region in response to international calls for calm, Al-Bashir said: "Salva Kiir refuses to admit defeat of his forces." Al-Bashir reiterated his earlier statement that the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM ruling in South Sudan) is "insects," vowing "to cleanse South Sudan of them." The negotiations between the two sides on the oil dossier entered a blind alley shortly before the fighting over Heglig broke out in early April.
Sudan blocks S. Sudan oil exports
Birmingham Mail BUNGLING would-be robbers thwarted in their bid to raid a bookmakers in Birmingham fled down a blind alley.
BUNGLING ROBBERS FOILED BY DEAD END
The Tories would take Wales and Britain to the "fringes of Europe" and the nationalist ambition of independence was a "blind alley", he said, ahead of the launch of Labour's European campaign in Cardiff.
Rhodri's poll alert
24-Carat Black's Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth and The Emotions' Blind Alley are tailor-made for 21st century treatment, while Booker T & The MGs' Melting Pot and The Bar-Kays' Humpin' are funky instrumentals.
VARIOUS ARTISTS The Soul Of Hip-Hop
Life as a miner, boxer, Merchant Navy stoker, even a hobo for a year in the States gave him a much wider view of the real world than the young Neil ever got in his political blind alley.
THE DAY 'OUR' NEIL BECAME A BRIGAND
The report - The M6 Expressway: Open Road or Blind Alley? - casts doubt on the extent to which the existing M6 Toll has relieved the M6 and says any private toll road operator would have a vested interest in keeping the existing M6 congested so that its road is as attractive as possible.
Report is against second M6 toll
Extending Britain's first toll motorway 50 miles through the green belt is a 'blind alley' that would fail to solve congestion on the country's roads, it was claimed yesterday.
M6 Expressway scheme 'leading up a blind alley'
Leeds had appeared to turn a corner with victory at West Ham last Sunday and in the Uefa Cup against Hapoel Tel-Aviv on Thursday but it has proven to be nothing more than the club heading down a blind alley following their 4-2 humiliation at home to Bolton.
Football: Venables back to square one; LEEDS UNITED ............................. 2 BOLTON ...................................... 4
In reality, they too are heading down a blind alley. At Tynecastle, just as at Pittodrie, the culture of defeatism, has seeped into the boardroom.
Football: HEARTLESS LOT'S DON TO THE DOGS!