English

Alternative forms

• back-yard, back yard

Noun

backyard ‎(plural backyards)

1. A yard to the rear of a house or similar residence.
2. (colloquial) A person's neighborhood, or an area nearby to a person's usual residence or place of work and where the person is likely to go.
   • 2005, Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Symptoms of withdrawal: a memoir of snapshots and redemption, ISBN 0060732482, 9780060732486, page 18:

     The entire beach was my backyard, from the Hiltons' house in the south all the way to Steele Hunter's house in the north.

3. (colloquial) An area nearby to a country or other jurisidiction's legal boundaries, particularly an area in which the country feels it has an interest.
   • 1942, Wilfrid Hardy Callcott, The Caribbean policy of the United States, 1890-1920, page 343:

     However, the region was in the United States backyard and Britain should look passively on with acquiescence in whatever policy the United States saw fit to pursue about Mexico.

Related terms

• front yard

Usage notes

Note that backyard is usually written as a single word, while front yard is always written as two words.

Translations

Derived terms

• backyard cricket
• not in my backyard (NIMBY)