speakeasy, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

speakeasy n.

[SE speak + easy, speak softly, e.g. the tone of voice in which one addressed the lookout or in which the patrons were urged to talk in case the police were at the door; the term is first recorded in Sydney, Aus. in 1829, although it is traditionally associated with the US, where it appeared c.1890, and in both meant an illicit liquor shop or an unlicensed bar. The advent of Prohibition (1920–33) elevated the once-marginal institution into the mainstream of US life. ]

(Aus./US) an illicit drinking establishment; also attrib.

1829		Sydney Gaz. 15 Sept. 3/3: I am a publican residing a considerable distance in the interior [...] I feel myself most seriously annoyed in my business by what are termed private grog sellers, or, as the fancy style them, speak easy shops, who set at defiance all attempts of the Magistracy to put them down.
1837		Sydney Herald 20 Nov. 3/3: [T]here are so many sly grog shops, called in slang terms ‘speakeasy’s’ in this part [...] which are receptacles for thieves, bushrangers, and stolen property.
1888		Canonsberg Wkly Notes (PA) 30 Nov. 4/1: There seems to be a good deal of drinking around Canonsberg these days. Can it be that there are speak-easies still in running order?
1893		St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 3 Dec. 17/7: ‘A speak easy’ is a bar-room open after hours.
1893		G.A. Sala in Daily Tel. 25 Oct. in Ware (1909) 110/2: In many places (U.S.A.), especially in the cities, the existence of the law makes no real difference; in some few, by fits and starts, it is rigidly enforced, and the consequence is that the drinking is driven underground, into what they variously call ‘dives’, ‘speakeasies’, and ‘kitchen bar rooms’ in the North ; and ‘blind pigs’ and ‘blind tigers’ in the South.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 60: There are to-day, as then, in abundance, disorderly houses, ‘speakeasies,’ saloons or ‘clubs’ where liquor is sold long after the permitted time.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 19/3: I’ve often wondered what the Americans mean when they speak of ‘boot-leggers,’ ‘pocket-peddlers,’ ‘blind tigers,’ ‘speak-easys’ and ‘blind pigs’ in connection with the ‘dry’ territories in the land of the grilled nigger. I know, of course, that they are all contrivances for the illicit sale of grog [...].
1927		H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 21: The first of these speak-easies was established about 1825 By Rosanna Peers in Center street.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 86: Now it was a speak-easy run by a couple of wops.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 127: A mild-mannered youth called Fancy used to tend bar in a dingy speak-easy on the wrong side of Van Buren Street.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 50: ‘Speakeasies?’ ‘Yep, that’s what they call them: closed-door beer joints with peep-holes in the doors.’.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 55: In this speakeasy, I think they also gamble.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 96: This was the Depression era, the Prohibition-speakeasy era.
1993		E. Richards Cocaine True 152: I began runnin’ a speakeasy, selling beer and stuff out of here.
1999		Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 65: The age of speakeasies, jazz, sexual license and gangsters.