speakeasy

Deverbal from speak easy (= speak quietly [interj.]); for the history, see Wikipedia at speakeasy § Etymology.

speakeasy (plural speakeasies or speakeasys)

1. (historical) An illegal saloon or tavern, especially one operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s.

   Synonyms: blind pig, blind tiger

   • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 90:

     Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.

   • 2020, David Rosen, Prohibition New York City, Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 39:

     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.

Connotations of a classy establishment—some required coat and tie—compared with a more downmarket blind pig or blind tiger.

• smokeasy

• speakeasy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia