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cul-de-sac

[kuhl-duh-sak, -sak, kool-; Fr. kyd^uh-sak]

Origin

Culdesac www.ask.com/Culdesac Look Up Culdesac. Get The Right Answer, Right Now!

noun, plural culs-de-sac

[kuhlz-duh-sak, -sak, koolz-; Fr. kyd^uh-sak] .

a street, lane, etc., closed at one end; blind alley; dead-end street.

any situation in which further progress is impossible.

the hemming in of a military force on all sides except behind.

Anatomy. a saclike cavity, tube, or the like, open only at one end, as the cecum.

Origin:
1730–40; < French: literally, bottom of the sack

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To cul-de-sac

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Cul-de-sac is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

cul-de-sac (ˈkʌldəˌsæk, ˈkʊl-)

—n , pl culs-de-sac, cul-de-sacs
1.	a road with one end blocked off; dead end
2.	an inescapable position
3.	any tube-shaped bodily cavity or pouch closed at one end, such as the caecum

[C18: from French, literally: bottom of the bag]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

cul-de-sac

1738, as an anatomical term, from Fr., lit. "bottom of a sack," from L. culus "bottom" (for second element, see sack (n.1)). Application to streets and alleys is from 1800.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

cul-de-sac (kŭl'dĭ-sāk', k&oobreve;l'-)
n. pl. culs-de-sac (kŭlz'-, k&oobreve;lz'-) or cul-de-sacs
A saclike cavity or tube open only at one end.

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Related Words

cecum

impasse

Matching Quote

"Nearly a million species of animals are already known. Of these, only a few thousand are endowed with anything which can be called intelligence, only a few tens with high intelligence, and only one with conceptual thought. In the same way, there are hundreds of known religions; it had better be left to more orthodox writers than myself to enumerate those which can be called high religions. Animal evolution witnesses to a central upward trend of biological progress; it also shows us the retention of low types along with high, the throwing out of blind-alley side branches of specialisation at every level, and sometimes even degeneration. Religious evolution also shows a central progress—but equally the production of bizarre side-branches, the permanent confining of the religious spirit in low-level embodiments, its projection into every conceivable cul-de-sac, its too frequent bending over from upward to downward growth."

-Julian Huxley

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