Definition of "backstairs" [back•stairs]

• Furtively carried on; clandestine: backstairs gossip. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The road to eminence lay by the "backstairs," the atmosphere of which he could not endure."
• "We crept up the backstairs in our nightclothes, trailed by the sleepy dogs."
• "Now, this will all be cleared up soon, but Mrs. Chiffinch misses you and wonders if we could sneak you in for a quiet supper in the backstairs with us."