speakeasy

Noun

speakeasy (plural speakeasies or speakeasys)

1. (historical) An illegal saloon or tavern, especially one operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s.
   • Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 90
   • 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.2020, David Rosen, Prohibition New York City, Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 39

   Synonyms:

   blind pig, blind tiger

   1. (broadly, historical) In modern times, a legal bar in the style of a speakeasy, i.e. one that is hidden away and has a quiet atmosphere.