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View synonyms for

back-alley

[ bak-al-ee ]

adjective

  1. dirty, unprepossessing, sordid, or clandestine:

    back-alley morals; back-alley political schemes.



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Word History and Origins

Origin of back-alley1

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65
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Idioms and Phrases

see under back street .
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

On this Sunday morning, she, Winslet and Erivo sit with Demi Moore, who undergoes a dramatic physical transformation after receiving a back-alley rejuvenation treatment in “The Substance”; Zoe Saldaña, returning to singing and dancing as a lawyer protecting a Mexican cartel leader in the Spanish-language musical “Emilia Perez”; and Saoirse Ronan, starring as a young woman grappling with her sobriety in remote Scotland in “The Outrun” and as a British mother searching for her lost son during the Nazi bombing of London during World War II in “The Blitz.”

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But there’s a real passion for the movie and Moore’s turn as Elisabeth Sparkle, a faded star who submits to a back-alley rejuvenation regime to reset her career.

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Moore earned enthusiastic praise for her turn as Elisabeth Sparkle, a faded star who submits to a back-alley rejuvenation regime to reset her career.

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In Coralie Fargeat’s blood-soaked fable about fear and self-loathing in Hollywood, Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a faded star who submits to a back-alley rejuvenation regime to reset her career.

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Mine, currently, is a back-alley trail that winds through Eagle Rock’s rec center, through the hills and onto the Occidental College campus.

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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.

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