🗓️ Idiom: A Backroom Deal (n)
💬 Meaning
- A secret or private agreement, often made without public knowledge.
- A deal made behind closed doors, sometimes in a dishonest or unfair way.
🧠 Example Sentences
- The contract was awarded through a backroom deal, not open competition.
- People were angry when they found out about the backroom deal between the company and the officials.
- A backroom deal was made to avoid negative press during the merger.
🏛️ Origin
The idiom comes from the idea of meetings happening in “back rooms”, private spaces away from the public or main office. These secret meetings were often where powerful decisions were made without transparency. The phrase became common in politics and business in the mid-1900s.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
The two CEOs made __________ to divide the market without informing their teams.
Answer
a backroom deal
2. Choose the correct meaning of “a backroom deal”:
A) A public announcement about a deal
B) A legal agreement made in court
C) A secret or private deal made behind the scenes
Answer
C) A secret or private deal made behind the scenes
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“The agreement was made in secret and not shared with the team.” → Change the sentence using: a backroom deal
Answer
The agreement was a backroom deal and not shared with the team.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
