backstairs
/bˈækstˌɛɹz/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.70 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An indirect or furtive means of access or intercourse.
adj
Example Sentences
- "Here I diſcovered the ſecret Cauſes of many great Events that have ſurprized the World, how a Whore can govern the Back-ſtairs, the Back-ſtairs a Council, and the Council a Senate."
- "1905, Ernest William Hornung, “The Spoils of Sacrilege” in A Thief in the Night, Other feet were already in the lower flight of the backstairs; but the upper flight was the one for me, and in an instant we were racing along the upper corridor […]"
- "The straight-forward course, they say, would be to proclaim outright, instead of trying to bring it in by the backstairs."
- "[…] if some peers (I am very sorry they are not as many as they ought to be) set themselves, in the great concern of peers and commons, against a back-stairs influence and clandestine government, then the alarm begins; then the constitution is in danger of being forced into an aristocracy."
- "The danger of the situation was increased by the mischievous conduct of Alderman Townshend, who had been brought down to the House, pale and bandaged from a recent surgical operation, in order to pour forth a diatribe against female caprice and backstairs influence; […]"
- "This backstairs visit was all about sex […]"