See backstairs on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for backstairs meaning in All languages combined (4.4kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "back",
"3": "stairs"
},
"expansion": "back + stairs",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "back + stairs",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "p"
},
"expansion": "backstairs pl (plural only)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "4 5 52 39",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 8 66 18",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English pluralia tantum",
"parents": [
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"Nouns",
"Lemmas"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "1905, Ernest William Hornung, “The Spoils of Sacrilege” in A Thief in the Night,\nOther feet were already in the lower flight of the backstairs; but the upper flight was the one for me, and in an instant we were racing along the upper corridor […]"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A staircase at the rear of a building or one normally only used by servants and tradesmen."
],
"id": "en-backstairs-en-noun-YMubqN8f",
"links": [
[
"staircase",
"staircase"
],
[
"servant",
"servant"
]
],
"tags": [
"plural",
"plural-only"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1934 March 27, “De Valera Move Hits Dignity Of Governor-General”, in Christian Science Monitor",
"text": "The straight-forward course, they say, would be to proclaim outright, instead of trying to bring it in by the backstairs.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An indirect or furtive means of access or intercourse."
],
"id": "en-backstairs-en-noun-4kydfVTV",
"tags": [
"plural",
"plural-only"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
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"tags": [
"US"
],
"text": "Audio (US)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
"word": "back-stairs"
}
],
"word": "backstairs"
}
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "back",
"3": "stairs"
},
"expansion": "back + stairs",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "back + stairs",
"forms": [
{
"form": "more backstairs",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "most backstairs",
"tags": [
"superlative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "backstairs (comparative more backstairs, superlative most backstairs)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents",
"text": "[…] if some peers (I am very sorry they are not as many as they ought to be) set themselves, in the great concern of peers and commons, against a back-stairs influence and clandestine government, then the alarm begins; then the constitution is in danger of being forced into an aristocracy.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1880, George Otto Trevelyan, chapter 8, in The Early History of Charles James Fox, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1881, page 364",
"text": "The danger of the situation was increased by the mischievous conduct of Alderman Townshend, who had been brought down to the House, pale and bandaged from a recent surgical operation, in order to pour forth a diatribe against female caprice and backstairs influence; […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Secret or furtive."
],
"id": "en-backstairs-en-adj-toZH5TkM",
"links": [
[
"Secret",
"secret"
],
[
"furtive",
"furtive"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "zadkulisen",
"sense": "Secret or furtive",
"word": "задкулисен"
}
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Scandalous."
],
"id": "en-backstairs-en-adj-eFG5QBiW",
"links": [
[
"Scandalous",
"scandalous"
]
]
}
],
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"tags": [
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],
"text": "Audio (US)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
"word": "back-stairs"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "backstair"
}
],
"word": "backstairs"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
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"English pluralia tantum",
"English terms with audio links"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
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"3": "stairs"
},
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"name": "compound"
}
],
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{
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},
"expansion": "backstairs pl (plural only)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
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"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"examples": [
{
"text": "1905, Ernest William Hornung, “The Spoils of Sacrilege” in A Thief in the Night,\nOther feet were already in the lower flight of the backstairs; but the upper flight was the one for me, and in an instant we were racing along the upper corridor […]"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A staircase at the rear of a building or one normally only used by servants and tradesmen."
],
"links": [
[
"staircase",
"staircase"
],
[
"servant",
"servant"
]
],
"tags": [
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]
},
{
"categories": [
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],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1934 March 27, “De Valera Move Hits Dignity Of Governor-General”, in Christian Science Monitor",
"text": "The straight-forward course, they say, would be to proclaim outright, instead of trying to bring it in by the backstairs.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An indirect or furtive means of access or intercourse."
],
"tags": [
"plural",
"plural-only"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-backstairs.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/26/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-backstairs.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-backstairs.wav.mp3",
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"tags": [
"US"
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"text": "Audio (US)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "back-stairs"
}
],
"word": "backstairs"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English compound terms",
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"English lemmas",
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],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "back",
"3": "stairs"
},
"expansion": "back + stairs",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "back + stairs",
"forms": [
{
"form": "more backstairs",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "most backstairs",
"tags": [
"superlative"
]
}
],
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"expansion": "backstairs (comparative more backstairs, superlative most backstairs)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents",
"text": "[…] if some peers (I am very sorry they are not as many as they ought to be) set themselves, in the great concern of peers and commons, against a back-stairs influence and clandestine government, then the alarm begins; then the constitution is in danger of being forced into an aristocracy.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1880, George Otto Trevelyan, chapter 8, in The Early History of Charles James Fox, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1881, page 364",
"text": "The danger of the situation was increased by the mischievous conduct of Alderman Townshend, who had been brought down to the House, pale and bandaged from a recent surgical operation, in order to pour forth a diatribe against female caprice and backstairs influence; […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Secret or furtive."
],
"links": [
[
"Secret",
"secret"
],
[
"furtive",
"furtive"
]
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Scandalous."
],
"links": [
[
"Scandalous",
"scandalous"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-backstairs.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/26/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-backstairs.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-backstairs.wav.mp3",
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"tags": [
"US"
],
"text": "Audio (US)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "backstair"
},
{
"word": "back-stairs"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "zadkulisen",
"sense": "Secret or furtive",
"word": "задкулисен"
}
],
"word": "backstairs"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.