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  • back street
    back street
    noun
    a street apart from the main or business area of a town.
  • back-street
    back-street
    adjective
    taking place in secrecy and often illegally.
Synonyms

back street

1 American  

noun

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

back-street 2 American  
[bak-street] / ˈbækˌstrit /

adjective

  1. taking place in secrecy and often illegally.

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

  1. 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.

Etymology

Origin of back street1

First recorded in 1630–40

Origin of back-street2

First recorded in 1895–1900

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.

Find the right back street just south of the French Quarter, ascend a set of stairs and you’ll find Habakuk Fine Coffee and Bistro, a Michelin Bib Gourmand winner.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026

My brilliant solution was to somehow maneuver the Civic two blocks, bucking and wheezing all the way, park it out of sight on a back street, and furtively drive my own car to Seattle.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 10, 2023

“I didn’t know if it was coming from the back street behind me or in front of me,” she recalled in an interview.

From New York Times • Jul. 10, 2023

A vast array of people can be glimpsed when turning a corner or stepping into a back street.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 25, 2023

Gay chose a back street that brought them out on the main highway at Peter’s Gate just before the steep Carmel Hill starts.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

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.