An Americanism dating back to 1860–65
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bickerstaff was referring to a time-honored tradition of Detroit basketball: Turning a hard court ballet into a back-alley brawl.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
She’s on the wrong side of 50, has been fired from her retro-style exercise show and is so desperate that she’s considering submitting to a back-alley rejuvenation regime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2024
In this country, before abortion was legal, women went to both reputable doctors and back-alley quacks to get care.
From Slate ● Nov. 7, 2023
Abortion in California was illegal at the time, so a family friend helped send her to a back-alley clinic in Mexico, she said at the time.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
At the university, just a few miles from his back-alley boardinghouse on Invalidenstrasse, Mendel began to experience the intellectual baptism that he had so ardently sought in Brno.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In a damp back alley, Jingjing joined job-seekers milling about leisurely, haggling for higher wages while garment bosses perched on scooters brandished hiring signs, desperate for day labourers.
From Barron's ● May 6, 2026
“We can play a defensive game if we have to. And I think we can play a back alley game, too.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2025
Shawn Younker, incarcerated in Pennsylvania, writes, “We might as well be rummaging the dusty old leftovers in some thrift store or back alley dumpster.”
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2024
The students had planned to meet that day after classes in a back alley less than 300 feet from the campus, he said.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
They'll send a guy to the ten- second place at midnight, and then place soldiers along the back alley.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
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.
