back alley

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Bickerstaff was referring to a time-honored tradition of Detroit basketball: Turning a hard court ballet into a back-alley brawl.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 4, 2026

In this country, before abortion was legal, women went to both reputable doctors and back-alley quacks to get care.

From Slate • Nov. 7, 2023

Abortion in California was illegal at the time, so a family friend helped send her to a back-alley clinic in Mexico, she said at the time.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 21, 2023

Ed Kienholz’s assemblage ‘The Illegal Operation,’ on view at LACMA, muses on back-alley abortions.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 6, 2022

At the university, just a few miles from his back-alley boardinghouse on Invalidenstrasse, Mendel began to experience the intellectual baptism that he had so ardently sought in Brno.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee