Speakeasy
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Speakeasy is a noun meaning (historical) An illegal saloon or tavern, especially one operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s.
Meaning
(historical) An illegal saloon or tavern, especially one operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s.
Example Sentences
Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.
Retuning^([sic]) to Gotham, he came to intimately know Manhattan's speakeasy scene. “At a speakeasy,” Hirschfeld acknowledged, “you had to be known to get in...each place had its own clientele.” Membership cards, really fake IDs, were common.
Word Forms
- speakeasies
- speakeasys
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include saloon, smokeasy, saloonkeeping, bawdy-house, spookhouse, alehouse.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.