Tennis. the space on each side of a tennis court between the doubles sideline and the service or singles sideline.
6.
Rare. an aisle.
—Idiom
7.
up or down one's alley, Informal. in keeping with or satisfying one's abilities, interests, or tastes: If you like science fiction, this book will be right up your alley.
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME al(e)y < MF alee walk, passage, deriv. of fem. of ale, ptp. of aler to walk (F aller), prob. < VL *allārī, regularized from allātus, the suppletive ptp. of afferre to bring (pass. afferrī to be moved, conveyed, to betake oneself); F aller often allegedly < L ambulāre to walk (see amble), but this offers grave phonetic problems, since the m and b would not normally be lost]
1360, "passage in a house, covered way, walk in a garden," from O.Fr. alée, from alé, fem. pp. of aler "to go," which ultimately may be a contraction of L. ambulare "to walk," or a back-formation from L. allatus "having been brought to." Applied c.1400 to "long narrow enclosure for playing at bowls, skittles, etc." The meaning "passage between buildings" is from c.1510; the word also is applied in Amer.Eng. to what in London is called a mews (q.v.). To be up someone's alley "in someone's neighborhood" (lit. or fig.) is from 1931; alley-cat first attested 1904.
Al"ley\, n.; pl. Alleys. [OE. aley, alley, OF. al['e]e, F. all['e]e, a going, passage, fr. OE. aler, F. aller, to go; of uncertain origin: cf. Prov. anar, It. andare, Sp. andar.]1. A narrow passage; especially a walk or passage in a garden or park, bordered by rows of trees or bushes; a bordered way. I know each lane and every alley green. --Milton. 2. A narrow passage or way in a city, as distinct from a public street. --Gay. 3. A passageway between rows of pews in a church. 4. (Persp.) Any passage having the entrance represented as wider than the exit, so as to give the appearance of length. 5. The space between two rows of compositors' stands in a printing office.
![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Audio Help [al-ee] Pronunciation Key 
