Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Backstairs"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Backstairs \Back"stairs`\, Backstair \Back"stair`\, a.
Private; indirect; secret; intriguing; -- as if finding
access by the back stairs.
A backstairs influence. --Burke.
Female caprice and backstairs influence. --Trevelyan.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
backstairs
adj : secret and sly or sordid; "backstairs gossip"; "his low
backstairs cunning"- A.L.Guerard; "backstairs
intimacies"; "furtive behavior" [syn: {backstair}, {furtive}]
n : a second staircase at the rear of a building
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