hidden staircase
Concealed vertical passage
A hidden staircase is a stairway concealed behind a wall, bookcase, or other feature, typically leading to a secret room or passage.
Historic houses sometimes contain them—built for servants' discrete movement or emergency escape.
The phrase evokes mystery and adventure, familiar from gothic novels and detective stories: The children discovered a hidden staircase behind the fireplace.
- secretConcealed information
- secret passageConcealed route through structure
- passageSegment of text
- concealedMade invisible deliberately
- trapdoorHinged floor panel
mystery · old mansion · mansion · bookcase · lever · Nancy Drew · cobwebs · dusty · creaking · spiral · descent · tunnel · cellar · attic · torch · shadows · ancient · gothic
- hidden roomspanic room, safe room, priest hole, secret passage, bookcase door
- hiding placeshideout, bolthole, cubbyhole, den, hidey-hole
- secret passagessecret passage, secret door, underground tunnel, escape tunnel, bookcase door
- speakeasysecret bar, password, bootleg liquor, bathtub gin, Prohibition