backroom

1 of 2

adjective

back·​room ˈbak-ˈrüm 

-ˈru̇m

variants or back-room

: made or operating in an inconspicuous way : behind-the-scenes

backroom deals

a backroom politician

back room

2 of 2

noun

1

: a room situated in the rear

2

: the meeting place of a directing group that exercises its authority in an inconspicuous and indirect way

Examples of backroom in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Pascal Planque, Mike Stowell and new first team coach Adam Sadler complete the new-look Foxes backroom staff for the upcoming season. —SI.com, 1 July 2018

After five months of backroom horse-trading and all-night arm twisting, Angela Merkel faces one last obstacle to achieving a stable government in her fourth term as German chancellor. —Griff Witte, Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2018

Noun

The opacity and coyness of the white-cube gallery, confining its business activities to the back room, feel like holdovers from an earlier age, when the modernist opposition of art and commerce governed artmaking and marketing both. —Natasha Degen, Artforum, 1 Nov. 2024

As a senior elections coordinator at the West Bloomfield Township clerk’s office, Tony Weatherly fields questions from the counter, the phone, even the temporary workers in the back room. —John Wisely, Detroit Free Press, 28 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1911, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1592, in the meaning defined at sense 1