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.

Private; indirect; secret; conducted with secrecy; intriguing; -- as if finding access by the back stairs; as, backstairs gossip.

secret and sly or sordid; "backstairs gossip"; "his low backstairs cunning"- A.L.Guerard; "backstairs intimacies"; "furtive behavior"