Dictionary

backstairs en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From back + stairs.

Meanings

1. Secret or furtive.
   • […] if some peers (I am very sorry they are not as many as they ought to be) set themselves, in the great concern of peers and commons, against a back-stairs influence and clandestine government, then the alarm begins; then the constitution is in danger of being forced into an aristocracy. 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents:
   • This backstairs visit was all about sex […] 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 3, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
   • The danger of the situation was increased by the mischievous conduct of Alderman Townshend, who had been brought down to the House, pale and bandaged from a recent surgical operation, in order to pour forth a diatribe against female caprice and backstairs influence; […] 1880, George Otto Trevelyan, chapter 8, in The Early History of Charles James Fox, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1881, page 364:
2. Scandalous.

Forms

Synonyms

backstair

Translations (1)

bg задкулисен (secret or furtive)

backstairs en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From back + stairs.

Meanings

1. (plural, plural-only) A staircase at the rear of a building or one normally only used by servants and tradesmen.
   • 1905, Ernest William Hornung, “The Spoils of Sacrilege” in A Thief in the Night, Other feet were already in the lower flight of the backstairs; but the upper flight was the one for me, and in an instant we were racing along the upper corridor […]
   • Here I diſcovered the ſecret Cauſes of many great Events that have ſurprized the World, how a Whore can govern the Back-ſtairs, the Back-ſtairs a Council, and the Council a Senate. 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Further Account of Glubbdubdrib. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 111:
2. (plural, plural-only) An indirect or furtive means of access or intercourse.
   • The straight-forward course, they say, would be to proclaim outright, instead of trying to bring it in by the backstairs. 1934 March 27, “De Valera Move Hits Dignity Of Governor-General”, in Christian Science Monitor:

Forms