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ball alley. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ball alley, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
Noun
ball alley (plural ball alleys)
- (Ireland) A place for playing handball, ranging in structure from a patch of hard flat ground beside a gable to an indoor four-walled court similar to a squash court
- 1855, Anthony Marmion, The ancient and modern history of the maritime ports of Ireland, p.300 (London: J.H. Banks):
- A portion of it was still further desecrated ; up to a very recent period being used as a racket-court, or ball-alley
2011, Keith Duggan, House of Pain: Through the Rooms of Mayo Football, →ISBN, page 58:Perhaps the single most poignant image in the book is of the handball champion Mickey Walsh, described by Healy as 'our last hero' tossing a ball to himself in the dilapidated ball alley.
- 2013, November 6, Siobhan Lincoln, Ardmore Memory and Story - The Village "Roads And Houses" p.2 (Waterford Museum):
- The school was partly in front of them and on fine evenings, the gable end was used as a ball alley and it was quite a gathering place for young people.
2015, Paul Rouse, Sport and Ireland: A History, →ISBN, page 60:In Kilkenny City, there was also a tennis court in existence by 1798. This court later became known as a racket court and then a ball alley.
- (US, obsolete) A bowling alley
- 1828, Charter of the village of Albion, New York; quoted in Tanner v Trustees of Albion 5 Hill 121 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1843)
- It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to keep or maintain in the said village, any ball-alley, or apparatus, alley, machine, building or enclosure, constructed or used for the purpose of playing thereon or therewith at the game called or known by the name of nine-pins or ten-pins, for gain, hire, reward or emolument of any kind or in any manner whatsoever;
- 1849, Hiram R. Hawkins, quoted in Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography; Volume 1 : 1819-1851, p.250 (JHU Press, 2005) →ISBN:
- knew when he was setting up pins in a ball alley.
Synonyms