asphalt jungle
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of asphalt jungle
Apparently coined by George Ade ( def. ) in a fable published in 1917; popularized by a novel of the same title (1949) by W.R. Burnett (1899–1982), U.S. novelist and screenwriter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The annual Dubai Ride saw bikes race down Sheikh Zayed Road, a 10-lane asphalt jungle that gives drivers a view of the world’s tallest building and other sites.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 4, 2021
It doesn’t feel all that safe to navigate this asphalt jungle from the supposed haven of a crosswalk.
From Washington Times • Apr. 13, 2019
While the Miser enjoys a short vacation, let those of us left behind create our own staycation on the cheap, right here in our boiling but beloved asphalt jungle.
From New York Times • Jul. 31, 2014
While Strydom captured scenes of rural African soccer, the American painter Marcus Jansen’s urban expressionistic paintings set the sport in a surrealistic asphalt jungle.
From New York Times • Jul. 10, 2010
A kind of urban waif in the asphalt jungle, he regularly tastes despair, or what Kerouac calls "the pit and prunejuice of poor beat life itself in the god-awful streets of man."
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
