backroom boy
Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang:
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backroom boy
noun
noun
A person engaged in (secret) research. (1943 —) . Times The man most responsible for the development of the rocket projectile...is Group Captain John D'Arcy Bakercarr...whose 'backroom boys' at the Ministry of Aircraft Production have worked unremittingly with him ((1944)).
[From the notion of a secluded room at the rear of a premises where secret work is carried out; cf. Lord Beaverbrook in Listener Now who is responsible for this work of development on which so much depends? To whom must the praise be given? To the boys in the back rooms. They do not sit in the limelight. But they are the men who do the work ((1941)).]
noun
A person engaged in (secret) research. (1943 —) . Times The man most responsible for the development of the rocket projectile...is Group Captain John D'Arcy Bakercarr...whose 'backroom boys' at the Ministry of Aircraft Production have worked unremittingly with him ((1944)).
[From the notion of a secluded room at the rear of a premises where secret work is carried out; cf. Lord Beaverbrook in Listener Now who is responsible for this work of development on which so much depends? To whom must the praise be given? To the boys in the back rooms. They do not sit in the limelight. But they are the men who do the work ((1941)).]
| backhander, back-seat driver, back-asswards | |
| backside, backyarder, bacon |
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Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang
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