back room

American  

Or backroom

noun

1. a room located in the rear, especially one used only by certain people.

2. a place where powerful or influential persons, especially politicians, meet to plan secretly or from which they exercise control in an indirect manner.

   The candidate for mayor was chosen in the precincts' back rooms.

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back room British  

noun

1. 1. a place where research or planning is done, esp secret research in wartime

   2. ( as modifier )

      back-room boys

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Etymology

Origin of back room

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

When Dann moved into a back room with more space, Tracy and I were left with our own bedrooms.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026

Hunched over a laptop in the back room, another soldier admits that "victory" in this war looks very different these days.

From BBC • Feb. 4, 2026

In the back room of a children’s play space in Eagle Rock, Andrew Thomas asks a familiar parenting question: How do you stay calm when your kid is testing every last nerve?

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2025

About a dozen members of the party have piled into the back room of the pub while Fox News blares on surrounding TV screens.

From BBC • Mar. 5, 2025

It’s usually busy: people eating in the restaurant, playing pool in the back room, leaning over the jukebox, hunched over drinks.

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko