How to Use backstreet in a Sentence

backstreet

noun
  • Then on the way to the airport, there was a traffic jam that had my driver cutting through backstreets.
    — Mike Albo, Travel + Leisure, 8 June 2026
  • Details of the project are being kept on a backstreet, but it can be described as a boy band reunion movie.
    — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Feb. 2023
  • Wander the backstreets of the town, through the little cabins and past the french-speaking punks and their silent pit bulls.
    — Caro Clark, GQ, 25 Aug. 2017
  • Bodrum town center is known for its harbor and narrow backstreets full of merchants and bars.
    — Cuneyt Dil, Axios, 8 Sep. 2024
  • That sometimes pushes women to seek out backstreet clinicians, with all of the risk that brings.
    — The Economist, 27 July 2019
  • Restaurants dotting the main drags and backstreets cover a huge number of global cuisines.
    — Liz Biro, Indianapolis Star, 28 Sep. 2017
  • On backstreets at this year’s fair, at least six cabins flew the Confederate flag.
    — Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2023
  • Walk down Omoide-yokocho (Memory Lane), a snaking backstreet just west of the tracks.
    — Brandon Presser, Condé Nast Traveler, 17 Mar. 2020
  • On the mezzanine of a tiny workshop in a narrow backstreet, a woman in her 20s is busy at a sewing machine.
    — Paul Richardson, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Jan. 2023
  • This narrow backstreet in Kadıköy, on the Asian side of Istanbul, teems with men's hairdressers.
    — Lisa Morrow, CNN, 15 Nov. 2021
  • Multiple videos show the car veering directly at the mother and child while speeding the wrong way down a narrow backstreet with no sidewalks.
    — Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 3 June 2022
  • There are also Roman ruins, gorgeous churches and backstreet tapas bars that don't feature English menus.
    — Richard Quest and Joe Minihane, CNN, 8 Sep. 2021
  • The artists' homes, mostly rustic, one-story structures painted white and oxblood, are scattered on backstreets or throughout the surrounding woodlands.
    — Gisela Williams, Smithsonian, 10 Aug. 2017
  • But contrary to popular perception, violations do not occur only on dingy backstreets.
    — The Economist, 13 June 2018
  • Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, São Paulo’s industrial backstreets and the walls along the metro lines have always been arenas for expression.
    — Daniel Scheffler, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Intercut with Khuddoos’ progressive paranoia is a parallel tale about two boys who are bosom buddies and who prowl the backstreets together.
    — Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Oct. 2017
  • Fine and casual dining, museums, waterfront spots, artistic communities, and laneways, which are backstreets with shopping and plenty of places to eat and drink.
    — Nancy Trejos, USA TODAY, 11 Aug. 2017
  • As those all-white krewes rolled down the main streets of the parade routes, the real Mardi Gras was taking place in the backstreets of the surrounding Black neighborhoods.
    — Cierra Chenier, Essence, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Set in a downtown Mexico City backstreet whose inhabitants’ lives are closely interwoven, the film is split into four clear parts.
    — Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Though little more than a tiny room off a backstreet, this Chinatown food shop Nai Mong Hoi Thod is hardly Bangkok's secret.
    — Tom Parker Bowles, Condé Nast Traveler, 18 July 2024
  • Chania, Crete, stands out for its colorful historic center that’s full of trendy shops, restaurants, and cafés housed in ancient Venetian architecture and tucked away among narrow backstreets.
    — Kathleen Peddicord, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
  • Without a studio deal or traditional packaging, the young trio’s goal has been to build an independent empire from the backstreets of London to the heart of Hollywood.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Behind a Mexican restaurant in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood lies an industrial backstreet where people like to hang out after work.
    — Joshua Sharpe, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Sep. 2022
  • None of that, however, helps either of us to know where to start with choosing one of the 17 different varieties of cider listed on the blackboard in a backstreet pub that first opened its doors in 1834.
    — Stuart James, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2026
  • Every year, on Mardi Gras morning, something extraordinary emerges from the backstreets of New Orleans – groups of Black revelers most tourists will never see.
    — Nichole Marks, CBS News, 5 Apr. 2026
  • From night-time Raves and nocturnal Parisian café scenes evoking photographic masters such as Doisneau, to beaches and backstreets, Racine’s work captures the vibrant pulse of everyday life.
    — Lee Sharrock, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Within a few months, Giacomo from the backstreets of San Samuele was installed in an apartment in the senator’s palazzo, equipped with a servant, a private gondola, and a salary in perpetuity.
    — Clare Bucknell, Harper's Magazine, 11 Oct. 2022
  • Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, watched stunned as a dozen or more unconscious partygoers were carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters.
    — Hyung-Jin Kim, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Oct. 2022
  • In 1946, one enterprising local, Ganga Bishan Agarwal, began selling the snack from a humble shop in a Bikaner backstreet.
    — Shalba Sarda, CNN, 11 Sep. 2022
  • Director Ceyda Torun uses modern technology — infrared GoPro cameras — to capture a cat's-eye view, though the humans who care for these little sunbathers and backstreet scrappers tend to resonate nearly as much as their feline counterparts.
    — Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 6 Apr. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'backstreet.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: