Barback

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To work as a barback. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
bartenderrunnerrunner

Example

More examples

"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."

Etymology

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.

Related phrases

back of houseback office

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.