A street or passage closed at one end with no exit, also called a dead end or blind alley.
French phrase literally meaning 'bottom of the bag' (from 'cul' = bottom, 'de' = of, 'sac' = bag). Used in urban planning, it entered English in the 18th century to describe roads that lead nowhere, borrowing the vivid French metaphor about being trapped in a bag.
The French really nailed urban planning descriptions with their metaphorical language—'cul-de-sac' is so much more imaginative than just saying 'dead end,' and it stuck in English despite us usually replacing French terms!
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