backstairs
/ˈbakstɛːz
/plural noun
1Stairs at the back or side of a building.Places (we often called them that instead of farms) that I knew about all had either stairs or backstairs to the servants quarters, so I was quite surprised to see that at Beamish ladders had been the order of the day....
- The handrail was highly polished and unlike the dark and narrow backstairs there was no squeaky stair, no stair you had to avoid for fear your foot would fall through.
- Regardless, I sat outside on the backstairs watching the jackdaws gathering above and the sheep on the mountain opposite.
1.1 [as modifier] Underhand; clandestine: I won’t make backstairs deals with politicians...
- The book uses the fourth Doha meeting to trace how the so called Quad - the US, EU, Canada and Japan - use backstairs intrigue and ‘green room meetings’ to get their way.
- Eager hints would become rhapsodic proclamations; backstairs whispers would be babbled aloud in the corridors of the complex.
- Was there a motive at work under this strange reluctance of his which had a sort of backstairs influence, not admitted to himself?
