backroom

• back room

Compound of back +‎ room

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbækˌɹuːm/, /ˈbækˌɹʊm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbækˌɹum/
• Rhymes: -uːm

backroom (plural backrooms)

1. A room near the rear of a premises.
   1. (often attributive, often figurative) Especially, one that is only accessible to a privileged few and can be used as an inconspicuous meeting place, where secrecy, anonymity, and even crooked dealings may occur.

      Antonyms: front room; foreroom, anteroom, antechamber

      Hypernyms: room < place

      Near-synonym: smoke-filled room (meeting place of crooked insiders)

      backroom deals;   backroom bargaining

      • 1964 July, “News and Comment: The Broad Street-Richmond line”, in Modern Railways, page 17:

        It is known that means of using this end of the former NLR and Broad Street station to take an overspill of traffic from Liverpool Street have been under backroom study for some time.

      • 2024 August 14, “Thai court dismisses PM for violating constitution”, in bbc.com‎^[1]:

        The vote for a new prime minister will involve plenty of backroom bargaining, while Thailand struggles to revive its faltering economy.

   2. A storeroom in the rear of the premises.

      Hypernyms: storeroom < room < place

      We had thought that they were out of the old model, but somebody checked in the backroom and found a case of them.

• backroom boy
• backroom staff