back-alley
adjective
back-al·ley
1
: having a mean, furtive, or squalid character or air
back-alley gossip
2
: done secretly and illegally by someone using crude and dangerous methods
… postabortion distress (often caused by back-alley operations).
Marguerite Holloway, Scientific American, April 2001
Marguerite Holloway, Scientific American, April 2001
Word History
First Known Use
1894, in the meaning defined at sense 1