desire path

plural desire paths

1. Synonym of desire line.

   In a fit of misplaced municipal energy, the local council is paving the desire path that countless walkers have beaten diagonally across my local park.

   2000, Fran Tonkiss, in Steve Pile & Nigel Thrift (Eds.), City A-Z, p. 1

   1 more example

   After finishing it I took the shortcut path through the wasteland to the supermarket – what they call a desire path – and looked at it afresh, thought about it and felt it differently.

   2012, Andrew Greig, “Paths to Enlightenment”, in Literary Review, number 399

   Synonyms: desire line