English Dictionary

BACKSTAIRS

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IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does backstairs mean? 

BACKSTAIRS (noun)
  The noun BACKSTAIRS has 1 sense:

1. a second staircase at the rear of a buildingplay

  Familiarity information: BACKSTAIRS used as a noun is very rare.


BACKSTAIRS (adjective)
  The adjective BACKSTAIRS has 1 sense:

1. secret and sly or sordidplay

  Familiarity information: BACKSTAIRS used as an adjective is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


BACKSTAIRS (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A second staircase at the rear of a building

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("backstairs" is a kind of...):

staircase; stairway (a way of access (upward and downward) consisting of a set of steps)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)


BACKSTAIRS (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Secret and sly or sordid

Synonyms:

backstair; backstairs; furtive

Context example:

furtive behavior

Similar:

covert (secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed)


 Context examples 


Now, Jane, trip on before us away to the backstairs; unbolt the side-passage door, and tell the driver of the post-chaise you will see in the yard—or just outside, for I told him not to drive his rattling wheels over the pavement—to be ready; we are coming: and, Jane, if any one is about, come to the foot of the stairs and hem.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"A lie has no legs." (English proverb)

"Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself." (Native American proverb, Pima)

"Pick the lesser of the two evils." (Arabic proverb)

"Many hands make light work." (Dutch proverb)



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