Word.ws English Dictionary

barback

barback noun: an assistant to a bartender.

Noun

barback (plural barbacks)

  1. An assistant to a bartender.
    • Cerda moved to Chicago and worked at a series of bars and clubs: the Orbit Room, the Paradise Club, even a stint at Limelight, where he supplemented his earnings as a barback by performing as Nina Hagen in one of the cages.2000 December 1, Jack Helbig, “Reindeer Games”, in Chicago Reader
    Synonyms:
    runner

Verb

barback (third-person singular simple present barbacks, present participle barbacking, simple past and past participle barbacked)

  1. (intransitive) To work as a barback.

Synonyms of barback

Forms of barback

Noun
pluralbarbacks
Verb
third-person singular presentbarbacks
present participlebarbacking
past participlebarbacked
pastbarbacked

Origin of barback

From bar + back, due to working in the back area of the bar and not interacting with the patrons. Compare back of house and back office.

Questions about barback

What does barback mean?
Barback means an assistant to a bartender.
What part of speech is barback?
Barback can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of barback?
The plural of barback is barbacks.

Words near barback in the dictionary

  1. barb-wire
  2. barb-wires
  3. Barb.
  4. barbacan
  5. barbacans
  6. barback
  7. barbacked
  8. barbacking
  9. barbacks
  10. barbacoa
  11. Barbacoan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barback (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “barback.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barback. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.