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alleyway

[al-ee-wey]
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an alley or lane.
  2. a narrow passageway.

Origin of alleyway

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90; alley1 + way1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for alley-way

Historical Examples

  • Up this alley-way a man had been picking his prowling way in the dark.

    The Grammar School Boys Snowbound

    H. Irving Hancock

  • After supper they all sit about the kitchen or in the alley-way, chatting, smoking.

    In Madeira Place

    Heman White Chaplin

  • "Really, you are too archaic for words," said an Oddity in an alley-way.

    Actions and Reactions

    Rudyard Kipling

  • It was nearly two o'clock when they carried the ladder into the alley-way.

    Princeton Stories

    Jesse Lynch Williams

  • There remained the rigging and the alley-way, and neither was very enticing.

British Dictionary definitions for alley-way

alleyway

noun
  1. a narrow passage; alley
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for alley-way

n.

1788, from alley + way.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper