speakeasy
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of speakeasy
Explanation
During the time of Prohibition, people who wanted an alcoholic drink had to visit a speakeasy, or an illegal bar. In 1920 the United States began a failed experiment in social engineering, referred to today as Prohibition. Good citizens wasted little time in subverting laws banning the sale and consumption of alcohol by frequenting an establishment called the speakeasy — which, according to one slang lexicographer, may have come from a patron's manner of ordering an alcoholic drink without raising suspicion. The word may also be related to "speak softly shop," the nineteenth century Irish term for a smuggler's den.
Vocabulary lists containing speakeasy
Chapter 13, Sections 1–3
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The Mighty Miss Malone
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Night Owls
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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.
See Examples For:
Listening to “The Boutique,” I feel like I should be smoking a cigarette and drinking the dirtiest martini known to man in a speakeasy, wearing a drop waist silk dress and bright red lipstick.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026
"What a place this is!" he gushed, of Invercargill, excitement bursting out of him like he was in some rooftop bar in downtown Tokyo or a speakeasy in the East Village in New York.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
Janes House was bought by a developer and moved to the back of its lot where it was restored; it is now the speakeasy No Vacancy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2026
This no-device speakeasy would be less structured around work and more like a hangout: Someone just kicks off a conversation and folks follow on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
Others reported seeing Bryan and Anna leave the speakeasy in the company of a “third man” who wasn’t the uncle.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Today, the places that call themselves speakeasies are about intentionality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
Then I was working the door at these speakeasies that were really important back then, called Temple Bar and Zanzibar.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2025
The parallels with early 20th century Prohibition in America – gangsters, feminists, minorities, corruption, doctor’s notes, speakeasies and moonshine – are strikingly similar.
From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2025
The self-taught pianist and vocalist Emma Barrett was born in 1897 and came of age performing in the speakeasies and early “jass” orchestras that birthed the genre.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2023
The whites I’d known loved to rub shoulders publicly with black folks in the after-hours clubs and speakeasies.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
