back alley

back alley

A suspicious place known for the seedy or nefarious activities that happen there. Stay away from the back alley—I don't want you involved in any of the illegal activities that go on there. I don't trust that shady character at all—he's usually skulking around back alleys with nefarious people. The bouncer hauled the drunkard out of the bar and gave him a beating in the back alley.
See also: alley, back
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

back alley

see under back street.
See also: alley, back
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in classic literature ?
Success gave him nerve and even actual intrepidity; insomuch, indeed, that after he had conveyed his harvest to his mother in a back alley, he went to the reception himself, and added several of the valuables of that house to his takings.
The young ladies, and other people, crowded around and showed a great deal of sympathy, but that did not help matters; for my friends said they did not want sympathy, they wanted a back alley and solitude.
And they had also brought pianos and guitars, and they played and sang operas, while the plebeian paper-lanterned gondolas from the suburbs and the back alleys crowded around to stare and listen.
Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight and fast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a purse full of gold in his hand, and then take and lead him all around the back alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him here in the canoe, in a roundabout way amongst the islands, and search him and take his chalk away from him, and don't give it back to him till you get him back to the village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find it again.
A few months later 110 fridges were dumped in a back alley in Kings Norton in a single weekend, more have been found in country lanes, quiet cul-de-sacs and so on.
STOLEN shoes taken from an Olympian's car will be returned to their owner after being found in a back alley.
Firefighters extinguished the canister in the back alley of Northcote Street, near Yarm Road in Stockton at around tea-time.
This means two options: up a back alley (in private) or back home for a change of clothing.
The explosion occurred in a back alley of the old souq where several small restaurants operated by foreigners serve Bangladeshi and Indian food.
Roots Music Festival is presented by the UP Economics Society, UP Underground Music Community and Uber, together with Back Alley Barbershop, Crescendo, Jump Yard, Maroon FM, One Music PH, Wazzup Pilipinas, Philippine Concerts, UST Thomasian Cable, Blog-PH.com, Rakista Radio, DZUP, Monster RX 93.1, Clavel Magazine, ClickTheCity.com, Inquirer To be You, Revival, Indie Manila, Manila Concert Scene, Radio Republic, Greater Good Philippines, The Neighborhood, MYX PH, UP Optics, Kratos, UCC, Pinoyboxdelivery.com, Quiznos, Timezone, Barenaked, The Men's Room, Orange Segment and Whytstone Printing.
Long gone are days of hurry, big band, double shots, back alley, breakfast at midnight, round the clock, round the bar, indigo, shotgun, shimmy, shake down.
A second man, who has not been identified, was found five minutes later in a back alley across the street near an apartment building.
Police are still hunting two men who are believed to have attacked the 14-year-old in a back alley as she walked from Whitley Bay on Friday night.