desire line

noun
/dɪˈzaɪə laɪn/UK/dɪˈzaɪɹ laɪn/US

Definitions

  1. A path that pedestrians or vehicles take informally rather than taking a sidewalk or set…

    A path that pedestrians or vehicles take informally rather than taking a sidewalk or set route, for example, a well-worn ribbon of dirt cutting across a patch of grass, or a path in the snow.

    • Study participants also drew charts of pedestrian traffic to take note of what are delightfully termed "desire lines" – paths actually made by walkers as opposed to those created on the drawing board.
    • In areas with no sidewalks, beaten-down paths in the grass, known as "desire lines" in planning-speak, indicate yearning, said John La Plante, the chief traffic engineer for T. Y. Lin International, an engineering firm.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for desire line. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA