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View synonyms for back street

back street

1

noun

  1. a street apart from the main or business area of a town.


back-street

2

[ bak-street ]

adjective

  1. taking place in secrecy and often illegally:

    back-street political maneuvering; back-street drug dealing.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of back street1

First recorded in 1630–40

Origin of back street2

First recorded in 1895–1900
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Idioms and Phrases

Also, back alley . A less prominent or inferior location; also, a scene of clandestine or illegal dealings. For example, The highway department is very slow to clear snow from the back streets , or Before they were made legal, abortions were often performed in back alleys . Although back street literally means “one away from the main or business area of a town or city,” this term, from the early 1600s, became associated with underhanded dealings, and back alley , from the mid-1800s, is always used in this sense.
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Example Sentences

His carriage was brought round to a private door, in a back street; and Ripperda was at last persuaded to enter it.

Philip Burr led them into a back street, where his own handsome automobile was placed at their service.

Personally, he was subjected to no further annoyance, and soon forgot that unpleasant experience in the back-street.

That means the frontage will have to be in the little back street behind, on the shady side.

The journalists melted away, and Foyle presently found himself in a dingy back street where the local police station was situated.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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