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backseat

[ bak-seet ]

noun

  1. a seat at the rear.


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Word History and Origins

Origin of backseat1

First recorded in 1825–35
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. take a backseat, to occupy a secondary or inferior position:

    Her writing has taken a backseat because of other demands on her time.

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Example Sentences

Not too big and not too small, the 27-quart chest fits easily onto the backseat of my car.

Jones said those cuts, which saved the city $5,000 this fiscal year, shows that the needs of ordinary citizens take a backseat at City Hall.

In La Jolla, San Diego’s mayoral race seems to have taken a backseat to the all-consuming presidential election, even in Barbara Bry’s backyard.

Suddenly the cherry moves to the backseat of your conscious awareness, while the vanilla aroma pops into focus—even though you had not noticed it before.

Add a kid or two in the backseat, and your car literally can become a rolling dumpster before you even realize it’s happening.

If I do, I sit in the backseat and stay alert for whatever the driver does.

My mother was sitting in the backseat but that did not stop the driver from trying to touch me.

If it gave people some kind of joy afterwards, great, but everything took a backseat.

And it involves the U.S. taking a backseat to Iran and Syria.

David Garcia is attempting to make a phone call in the backseat.

The baggage—two trunks, a showman's keyster, two suitcases, a big duffle bag and handbags—was loaded on trailer and backseat.

He sat in the backseat of the car, and his hair dragged behind him.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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