🛣️ A small street 🕵️ Illegal or secret

backstreet

7.2

Describes businesses that are secret and illegal, like clinics or factories

adjective
/ˈbækˌstrit/

: clandestino

The police raided a backstreet clinic that was operating without a license.

Examples

The backstreet deals were never reported.
He found work in a backstreet factory that paid workers under the table.
Many backstreet businesses avoid taxes and government regulations.
They found a backstreet bar that served cheap drinks.
The police raided a backstreet clinic that was operating without a license.
He found work in a backstreet factory that paid workers under the table.
Many backstreet businesses avoid taxes and government regulations.

Synonyms

backstair

vsbackstreet

Archaic

9.9

Secret and dishonest actions done in private

focuses on illegal or unofficial businesses rather than just sly personal acts

Antonyms

official

∞ 2.3

Approved by a person or group in charge

to legitimate

Formal

1 5.6

To make something legal or accepted by law

How Legal

official

∞ 2.3

legal

∞ 2.5

unofficial

75 3.8

backstreet

7.2

illegal

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

backstreet positive

Morphology

backstreet = back + street (semi-transparent) = back + street

The components suggest 'hidden' or 'out-of-the-way', but the sense 'illegal/disreputable' is a metaphorical extension not strictly derivable from the literal components.

Etymology

Backstreet in the sense of secret or illegal also comes from back ('behind') and street ('road'), because activities hidden 'behind' the main streets were out of sight. So a 'backstreet' clinic or business is one that is not official or that operates in a disreputable, hidden way.