From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
backstairs
adj : secret and sly or sordid; "backstairs gossip"; "his low
backstairs cunning"- A.L.Guerard; "backstairs
intimacies"; "furtive behavior" [syn: backstair,
furtive]
n : a second staircase at the rear of a building
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Backstairs \Back"stairs`\, Back stairs \Back" stairs`\
(b[a^]k"st[^a]rz`) n.
Stairs in the back part of a house, as distinguished from the
front stairs; a second staircase at the rear of a building;
hence, a private or indirect way.
[1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5] Backstairs
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Backstairs \Back"stairs`\, Backstair \Back"stair`\, a.
Private; indirect; secret; conducted with secrecy;
intriguing; -- as if finding access by the back stairs; as,
backstairs gossip.
Syn: clandestine, cloak-and-dagger, hugger-mugger, hush-hush,
on the quiet(predicate), secret, subterranean,
surreptitious, undercover, underground.
[1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5]
A backstairs influence. --Burke.
[1913 Webster]
Female caprice and backstair influence.
--Trevelyan.
[1913 Webster]