back room

American  

Or backroom

noun

back rooms plural

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

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• back rooms
  plural

Etymology

Origin of back room

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

back room

They met at his penthouse in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, at a private back room in a bar in North Beach and at the W Hotel in Los Angeles, she writes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

The family lived in a back room of the establishment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

When I arrived at the back room of a Glendale church, I was given a new name.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026

MoonPay, a crypto payments company, held a private dinner in the back room of Torrisi, a chic SoHo restaurant, to celebrate a partnership with Dorsia, an app for restaurant reservations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

Hans was passing cakes in the back room, as was Toos in the front, wearing the nearest thing to a smile that her perpetually down-drawn lips would permit.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom