backcourt

From back +‎ court.

backcourt (plural backcourts)

(chiefly Scotland) A courtyard behind a housing block or tenement building.
- 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 77:
  Some backcourts had wee outside buildings. They had caved-in roofs and tile chimneys broke off and all smashed windows.
- 2011 January 8, Brian McHugh, The Guardian:
  Each unique backcourt was an adventure playground with walls to be climbed, chasms to be leaped and dustbins to be raked through and pillaged.
- 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 16:
  'The locus is Crawford Street?' 'One of the backcourts sir, as far as I understand.'
(basketball) A team's defensive half of the court; the part of the court where the other team's basket is located, or the guards playing in that area.
- 2009 January 2, Howard Beck, “Knicks Will Continue to Be Walsh’s Work in Progress in 2009”, in New York Times‎:
  So the Knicks, who began the season with a depleted frontcourt, have muddled through the last six weeks with a depleted backcourt as well.

English