aisle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A part of a church divided laterally from the nave by a row of pillars or columns.
2. n. A passageway between rows of seats, as in an auditorium or an airplane.
3. n. A passageway for inside traffic, as in a department store, warehouse, or supermarket.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Properly, a lateral subdivision of a church, parallel to the nave, choir, or transept, from which it is divided by piers or columns, and often surmounted by a gallery. The term is also improperly applied to the central or main division: as, a three-aisled church, that is, a church with a nave and two aisles. It is also used to designate the alleys or divisions of other structures, such as mosques, Egyptian temples, theaters, public halls, etc. As popularly applied to churches in which the nave and aisles proper are filled with pews, and in general to modern places of assembly, aisle denotes merely a passageway giving access to the seats: as, the center aisle and side aisles. Sometimes written isle. See figure showing ground-plan of a cathedral, under cathedral.
2. In heraldry, winged or having wings.

Wiktionary

1. n. A wing of a building, notably in a church separated from the nave proper by piers.
2. n. A clear path through rows of seating.
3. n. A clear corridor in a supermarket with shelves on both sides containing goods for sale.
4. n. Any path through an otherwise obstructed space.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A lateral division of a building, separated from the middle part, called the nave, by a row of columns or piers, which support the roof or an upper wall containing windows, called the clearstory wall.
2. n. Improperly used also for the have; -- as in the phrases, a church with three aisles, the middle aisle.
3. n. Also (perhaps from confusion with alley), a passage into which the pews of a church open.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. passageway between seating areas as in an auditorium or passenger vehicle or between areas of shelves of goods as in stores
2. n. a long narrow passage (as in a cave or woods)
3. n. part of a church divided laterally from the nave proper by rows of pillars or columns