backstairs
Americanadjective
-
associated or originating with household servants.
Weak tea and burnt toast evidenced the start of a backstairs revolt.
-
secret, underhanded, or scandalous.
backstairs gossip.
plural noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of backstairs
First recorded in 1635–45; adjective use of back stairs
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Both Angela Kelly, the Queen's dresser and personal assistant, and Paul Whybrew, her trusted Page of the Backstairs, have been heavily involved in their daily care for years.
From BBC • Sep. 11, 2022
In Backstairs, power is not an aphrodisiac but a soporific.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ironically, Backstairs might be more tolerable if it were at least effectively trashy television.
From Time Magazine Archive
The only ideology in Backstairs emanates from the series' writers.
From Time Magazine Archive
All the hundreds of palace staff were watching now, clustered at their windows: the Pages of the Presence and the Pages of the Backstairs.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
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.
