back door
Britishnoun
-
a door at the rear or side of a building
-
-
a means of entry to a job, position, etc, that is secret, underhand, or obtained through influence
-
( as modifier )
a backdoor way of making firms pay more
-
-
An entry at the rear of a building, as in Deliveries are supposed to be made at the back door only . [First half of 1500s]
-
A clandestine, unauthorized, or illegal way of operating. For example, Salesmen are constantly trying to push their products by offering special gifts through the back door . This term alludes to the fact that the back door cannot be seen from the front. [Late 1500s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After a December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., the Federal Bureau of Investigation tried to compel Apple to build a universal back door into the iPhone.
I hid my net behind a big lilac bush in Grandma’s front yard, walked around the house, and came in through the back door.
From Literature
I gathered all the skeins and tangles and bits of gold that I could find, wrapped them in a rag, and ran out the back door.
From Literature
Rudra Bahadur Kami returned to Nepal through a back door of Kathmandu airport in a battered coffin after working for more than a decade in Saudi Arabia to feed his family back home.
From Barron's
I could already hear the brook calling to me through the back door screen.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
