Cul-de-sac

//ˈkʌldəsæk// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A blind alley or dead end street.

    "Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over them. It was a watery cul de sac."

  2. 2
    A circular area at the end of a dead end street to allow cars to turn around, designed so children can play on the street, with little or no through-traffic.

    "And in suburbs known for new development, preservationists are often battling a general perception that there is nothing historic or worth saving among the cul-de-sacs."

  3. 3
    An impasse. figuratively

    "Physics seems, in fact, to have got itself into a cul-de-sac, obsessing over theories so mathematically abstruse that nobody even knows how to test them."

  4. 4
    A sacklike cavity, a tube open at one end only.

Etymology

Borrowed from French cul-de-sac, from cul (“bottom”) + de (“of”) + sac (“bag, sack”).

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: culdesac