the.com/blind alley
A path that looks like progress until the wall introduces itself.
means A course of action that seems promising but leads nowhere, wasting time and effort before dead-ending.
from From the literal blind alley — a narrow passage or alleyway that appears to lead somewhere but is actually closed off at one end, 'blind' here meaning 'having no opening or outlet,' the same sense used in 'blind spot.' The literal dead-end street gave its name, by the 1800s, to any plan, investigation, or line of thinking that looks like it's going somewhere right up until it isn't.
- origin
- literally a dead-end street, 1700s
- figurative use
- any plan that quietly leads nowhere
- feels like
- momentum without actual movement
- best spotted
- only after you've walked the whole thing