Meaning

8 senses

  1. (also, attributive)A back door or gate, side entrance, or other entrance distinct from the main one, especially one that is private or not obvious.

  2. A back door or gate, side entrance, or other entrance distinct from the main one, especially one that is private or not obvious.

    (also, attributive)A hidden or secret exit or tunnel of a fortification such as a castle, city wall, or fort.

    a small gate in the rear of a fort or castle

  3. (also, attributive, broadly)Any way in or out of a place, especially a hidden one; an entrance or exit.

  4. (also, attributive, historical)An underground passage communicating between a main ditch and a parade, or between the ditches and the interior of the outworks.

  5. (archaic, figuratively)A means of escape; an escape route.

  6. (archaic, figuratively)A dishonourable or unconventional means of doing something.

    Near-synonym: back door

  7. (figuratively, obsolete)The back or rear part of a thing.

  8. (figuratively, obsolete)The buttocks of a person; behind, posterior.

Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
back door or gate, side entrance, or other entrance distinct from the main one:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
back door or gate, side entrance, or other entrance distinct from the main one:

Origin

The noun is derived from Middle English postern, posterne (“side door or gate; small entra

The noun is derived from Middle English postern, posterne (“side door or gate; small entranceway; hidden or secret door or passage”), from Late Latin posterna, and from its likely etymon Anglo-Norman posterne and Old French posterne (“hidden exit from a fortified building; back door; small door”) (modern French poterne), a variant of posterle (“back door or passage”) (although this is attested later), possibly also influenced by Latin externus (“external, outward”) and internus (“internal, inward”). Posterle is from Late Latin posterla, posterula (“(small) back door, gate, or way”), from Latin posterus (“coming after, later, next”) (from post (“after; behind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pós (“afterwards; at, by”)) + -ula (suffix denoting an instrument).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: posterns
Singularpostern
Pluralposterns

regular

Synonyms

49 synonyms
backA1behindA1bottomA1bumB2moonA1peachB2rearB2seatA1tailB2back doorbacksidebattyblessed assurancebooty

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
posterA1posteriorposterityC2postgraduateposthumousposthumously
postern — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto