Cul-de-sac

Pronunciation

Origin

Borrowing from fr {{2}} cul-de-sac, from cul ("bottom") + de ("of") + sac ("bag, sack")

Full definition of cul-de-sac

Noun

1. A blind alley or dead end street.
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.
• 20100117 , Cara Buckley , A Suburban Treasure, Left to Die , 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. An impasse.
• 2005, February 14, 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. (medicine) A sack-like cavity or tube open at one end only.