backstreet

noun

back·​street ˈbak-ˈstrēt How to pronounce backstreet (audio)
often attributive
: a street away from the main thoroughfares

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web Consigned to the dim backstreets and nightclubs of Paris, in this life or the next, Jomo’s sister Udoka (Laëtitia Ky) matches Aleksei’s immigrant ennui and unrest. Guy Lodge, Variety, 19 Feb. 2023 Step off the Marais backstreet and glide down a rabbit hole to a lair of comforting cuisine by Joao DaSilva and Vincent Bessy that packs up a punch, and is brought to guests by a cast of handsome staff dressed in flowing black outfits that deliver on-point service. Rooksana Hossenally, Forbes, 18 Jan. 2022 Details of the project are being kept on a backstreet, but it can be described as a boy band reunion movie. Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Feb. 2023 On the mezzanine of a tiny workshop in a narrow backstreet, a woman in her 20s is busy at a sewing machine. Paul Richardson, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Jan. 2023 Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, watched stunned as a dozen or more unconscious partygoers were carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters. Hyung-jin Kim, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Oct. 2022 Behind a Mexican restaurant in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood lies an industrial backstreet where people like to hang out after work. Joshua Sharpe, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Sep. 2022 In 1946, one enterprising local, Ganga Bishan Agarwal, began selling the snack from a humble shop in a Bikaner backstreet. Shalba Sarda, CNN, 11 Sep. 2022 Video shows the suspect speeding the wrong way down a one-way backstreet, veering into the woman and her 8-month-old son in a stroller at around 8:40 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2021. Fox News, 6 June 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'backstreet.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of backstreet was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near backstreet

Cite this Entry

“Backstreet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/backstreet. Accessed 5 Jun. 2023.

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