Synonyms

back street

¹ American

noun

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

back-street ² American

[bak-street] / ˈbækˌstrit /

adjective

taking place in secrecy and often illegally.

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

back street Idioms

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.

A few went to Dartmouth, as the writer did himself; others grew up in the back streets and bazaars of the Punjabi capital of Lahore.

From The Wall Street Journal

Saturday morning in a back street in south London - and I am leaning on a metal railing.

From BBC

With the man's son directing them, the HTS security force drives to one of the poorer neighbourhoods, weaving through a warren of back streets, past scrapyards and middens.

From BBC

He said the incident happened at the Hope of Hart children's club, which is housed in a former warehouse building on a back street.

From BBC

A hair salon in a Kharkiv back street is one of many small businesses with a generator whirring noisily outside the door.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023