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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of back room

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

He’s heavier than the largest T. Rex ever unearthed, so huge that his magnificent tusks and skull had to be stored separately, in a back room.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

Gavin Vaughan, Scotland's chief analyst and a long-time part of Townsend's back room, is reportedly joining the club, external as head of recruitment at the end of the Six Nations.

From BBC • Feb. 13, 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

One day in 1980, after Workroom 27 moved from West Hollywood to Glendale, Whitten came into the back room and found Jelks working on guitar straps for Earth, Wind and Fire’s Johnny Graham.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2025

My friend took me into the back room to meet his pastor—a woman.

From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin